Naruto: Konoha's Arrancar Shinobi
by legion19
Summary: What would happen if the Kyuubi wasn't the only thing sealed inside Naruto? What if 5 of the Espada were along for the ride. Watch as Naruto takes the shinobi world by storm. Semi dark/ Sadistic battle loving Naruto. Naruto/harem. Poll Closed-See Chapter 5 for details and Beta Request.
1. Rebirth

**Well here it is people, the new and improved first chapter of Naruto: Konoha's **

**Arrancar Shinobi. Frankly this took longer than expected but I hope the edits and improvements I've added, please you. Also bear in mind after I rewrite the first two chapters, there might not be any new ones. I don't want to give up on this story but for the life of me, more often than not I have no desire to write only read. So please don't be upset if I end up stopping there, hopefully I will continue writing after this but don't hold your breath. **

"I'm Batman" Regular Speech

"_I'm Batman" Inner Thought_

"I'm Batman" Jutsu/ technique

"**I'm Batman" **Demonic Speech

Naruto: Konoha's Arrancar Shinobi 

Chapter 1: Prologue and Rebirth

(Hueco Mundo: Ruins of Las Noches)

The atmosphere in Hueco Mundo was even tenser than usual, the suffocating feeling of dread that every hollow felt daily was snuffed out by…something new. This feeling, the hollows with enough cognitive thought couldn't describe it in mere words; even the more beastial hollows felt it. Regardless, they all felt the same thing; today something monumental was going to happen. An event of such importance, that the very fabric of the world will change; for better of worse, no one could tell. They had no idea how right they were. For at this very moment former captain of the fifth division turned rogue shinigami by the name of Sosuke Aizen was in the middle of enacting his revenge against all those who stood between him and his impending godhood previously.

Aizen stood proudly in the ruins of his old throne room as he observed the labors of his hard work over the past few months. He had barely managed to escape from being imprisoned by the fool Urahara; luckily he used what remained of the Hōgyoku to escape the sealing process. He regretfully hid Hueco Mundo, waiting for the heat to die down before starting his master plan. He knew eventually those idiots would discover he was gone but by that time it would be too late. The materials needed for his revenge took time and effort to collect but through patience and careful planning he obtained everything he needed.

'_Yes, everything is going smoothly_' Aizen thought before he recited the kido spell that would ensure his victory. What, my dear viewer, is Aizen's plan you may ask? Well it is really quite simple. With the kido spell he just enacted he plans to revive his fallen Espada more powerful than ever. After all what would be the point of reviving warriors to battle his enemies if he knew they wouldn't stand a chance against captain-level shinigami.

As the bodies of Riyalgo Yammy, Starrk Coyote and his other half Gingerback Lilynette, Luisenbarn Baraggan, Harribel Tia, Cifer Ulquiorra, Jiruga Nnoitra, Jaegerjaquez Grimmjow, Leroux Zommari, Aporro Granz Szayel, and Arruruerie Aaroniero.at an astounding rate, the wall to the right of Aizen exploded inwards showing the chamber with debris. To his credit Aizen didn't even bat an eye but merely starred at the, now, gaping hole in the wall. As the smoke cleared, Aizen now had a clear view of the, soon to be dead, intruder that dared disturb him.

The intruder in question turned out to be a tall full figured woman that was roughly 5'9" in height. She had long greenish blue hair that flowed down like a waterfall down to her back. With a soft and delicate face her, at the moment, cold hazel eyes looked out of place as she glared at Aizen. A long crimson band stretched across her face, and a large scar jutting down from her forehead to her nose seemed to be the only flaw. She had…well, let's just say she was gifted in the breast department and that only accented her hourglass figure. Her only clothing at the moment seemed to be a green shirt that was torn below her breasts, which barely seemed to hold them in, and a short green skirt. If this image alone wasn't odd enough, on the top of her head was a large horned ram-like skull that was missing some of its teeth. Standing in all of her glory Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, former third Espada, with her sword Gamyusa clutched tightly in her hand; she shifted into a ready stance and locked eyes with Aizen.

"I won't let you continue with this Aizen, you've caused enough pain and suffering" Nelliel declared as she slowly shifted Gamyusa in front of her, ready to strike.

"Ah Nelliel how nice of you to stop by but I'm afraid it's too late to stop me, not that you had a chance to begin with. My Espada have almost fully regenerated, now I offer you a chance to join to me. Stand by my side once more or try and stop me and die like those fools in Soul Society" Aizen replied as he stared at her without even a trace of fear in his eyes before shifting them over to where his forces were being reconstituted.

Nelliel carefully followed his gaze, not fully taking her eyes off of Aizen, and to her horror the sight she saw cemented the fact he wasn't bluffing. What was the sight that put fear into our dear Nelliel? That's easy, the fully generated forms of Tia Harribel, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, Ulquiorra Cifer, and Coyote Starrk. All of whom I might add were looking confused as hell, as they to figure out what the fuck was going on. Nelliel mentally cursed upon seeing their regenerated forms, mentally calculating her now diminished chance of survival, and let alone victory.

Before Nelliel could even think about trying to strike down her former comrades, something…odd happened. A giant rip in time and space suddenly formed behind the now regenerated Espada and began to draw them in. Yelling out in surprise the Espada were quickly sucked in before they had a chance to even yell out. As the vortex continued to suck everything in around it Nelliel finally discovered that she too was being pulled towards the vortex. But as the saying goes 'too little, too late' and before she was sucked into the portal but not before one last thought crossed her mind.

'_Goodbye Dondochakka…Pesche…Bawabawa'_

And with that the portal closed behind her, with the collapse of the vortex a giant energy wave detonated from the former epicenter of the vortex. This thankfully destroyed the remains of the Esapda who had not fully regenerated in time, effectively screwing over Aizen's plan. Aizen stood there for a couple of moments, staring at the even now more destroyed ruins of Las Noches. Within a few moments everything clicked in Aizen's brain and surprising out of character he yelled to the heavens with a mighty "FUCK"

(Other side of the vortex: Konohagakure no Sato)

Unknown to the people down below, a giant portal opened in the skies above and Nelliel and the resurrected Espada came rocketing out of it towards the unforgiving ground below. While they careened towards the ground, they were finally able to catch a glimpse of their surroundings. To their utter confusion and disbelief they saw giant reddish brown toad fight a giant fox with nine tails…that's right nine freaking tails. If this image wasn't odd enough for them, a lone figure stood atop of the giant toad wearing a blue vest and a large tanto by its side, with what appeared to be a bundle in his arms. Before they could question this odd sight the figure did some weird handsigns and yelled out "Shiki Fujin". And before you could blink a giant ghostly figure appeared behind the fox. From what they could of the colossal phantasm it had long spiky white hair and a long grayish yakuta which covered most of its body.

Without warning the massive creature lashed out with one arm and seemingly phased threw the fox's chest as well as the unknown figure's chest. A blinding light temporarily robbed them of their vision, distracting them from the fact that they were sucked into a small blond baby. The last thing they heard before they were completely sealed were a man's sad and regretful voice say "Goodbye…Naruto". And with that, all they would know for the next thirteen year would be darkness and silence. Not knowing that when they woke they help a boy who would change everything forever.

-13 YEARS LATER-

Deep in the woods surrounding Konohagakure no Sato (Village Hidden in the Leaves), or simply called Konoha, one could find an interesting sight. Sitting near a ramshackle hut sat a young boy about thirteen with bright blonde hair and deep cerulean eyes, and a set of three whisker marks adorning each check. He wore an incredibly hideous orange and blue jumpsuit complete with blue sandal-boots and a pair of green goggles on his forehead. Said boy was sitting in front of a gigantic scroll which currently was rolled out and being read. This was Uzumaki Naruto, aka dobe, aka the village pariah, and unknown to him, jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. For as long as he could remember he was considered to be the most hated individual in the entire village. He had been overcharged in stores or just violently thrown out, they glared at him, told their children to avoid him and the most common torture them put him through were the beatings. But all of that paled in comparison, at least to him, no the worst thing they did to him was ignored his very existence.

Putting that aside for the moment, so far he had already learnt the Kage Bushin no Jutsu and now was just skimming the scroll for something cool, when he saw a technique that caught his eye. The Seal Breaker Jutsu, normally he would just pass this off as lame and move on, but something inside his head was pleading, no demanding, that he learn it. Not one to ignore his instincts that had saved his ass more times than he could count, he sat down and started practicing the hand seals over and over again.

Just as Naruto was about to practice the jutsu with chakra this time, a shadowy figure burst from the bushes and landed right near Naruto. Said figure turned out to be a man about 5'10" wearing standard Konoha shinobi attire: a dark blue long sleeved shirt which were rolled up about a 1/4th of the way, matching pants, a dark green flak jacket and finally blue shinobi sandals. He had tan skin with dark brown hair which was styled in a pony tail, held back by a hitai-ate, and brown eyes. The distinguishing feature about him was a long scar across the bridge of his nose. This man was none other than Umino Iruka, Naruto's sensei from the academy and one of the few people who actually give a damn about our blond protagonist.

"Naruto, what the hell do you thing you're doing? Stealing the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing! Do you have any idea of just how much Trouble you're in? You'll be lucky if they only throw you in jail for the rest of your life. What possessed you to do something this stupid?" Iruka yelled at his favorite student, trying to comprehend what would cause him to steal Konoha's most valued possession.

Naruto simply tilted his head in confusion before answering him "What do you mean Iruka-sensei? I'm learning a jutsu from the scroll here to pass the make up exam and finally become a gennin".

Iruka stared at him long and hard like he grew a second head "Naruto there is no, or has ever been, a gennin make up exam. "Who told you about this supposed exam?" he inquired of our favorite blond.

Naruto gapped at him in shock for a moment before he scrunched his face in thought '_What…what the fucking is going on here? Mizuki-sensei wouldn't lie to me would he? Is this part of the exam? Or…is there really no exam at all?_' he pondered mentally. Shaking his head to clear in jumbled and disinheriting thoughts he raised his head answered his equally confused sensei "Mizuki-Sensei was the one who told me about the make-up exam. After I failed he told me there was another way to become a gennin and only special cases are offered the chance. He told me all I had to do was break in Jiji's tower without being detected and steal this scroll then meet here so he could test me, so I could finally start on my path to becoming Hokage."

Iruka compiled his thoughts and unknown to him said them aloud for all to hear "Why would Mizuki-san lie to Naruto about stealing the scroll. Unless…Naruto MOVE NOW!" Iruka quickly pushed Naruto down, and just in time as numerous kunai and shuriken pierced Iruka's body and clothes, pinning him to the shack behind him.

"Well, looks like I'm late, you already found my secret hideaway eh Iruka" said a condescending voice Iruka and Naruto knew too well. Appearing from the shadows turned out to be none other than Iruka's childhood friend and Naruto's other sensei Mizuki. He was wearing standard Konoha shinobi attire, though if you looked closely you could see he had two giant shurikens attached to the back of this vest. He was wearing a blue bandana which doubled as his headband, which cover part of his whitish-blue hair. His green eyes glanced down at Naruto and Iruka as they themselves starred back at him, one with confusion and the other with suspicion and anger. With a sneer on his face he turned his attention to Naruto "Naruto, quickly give me the scroll before Iruka gets it. He's a traitor who's trying to steal the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing for himself and leave the village. Hurry hand it over and I'll make sure it gets back to Hokage-sama safely."

"Don't listen to him Naruto he's the traitor here, now take the scroll and run as fast as you can. I'll stay here and hold him off, that scroll is filled with forbidden jutsu that could topple entire villages, don not let him take that scroll NOW RUN" Iruka yelled as he tried pry the sharp implements of death currently lodged in his clothes and flesh out. Iruka tried to turn to fight his childhood friend turned traitor, but was hampered by the few remaining shuriken. Naruto whipped his head back and forth between Mizuki to Iruka, trying to decide who to believe only to get a headache for his troubles.

"Naruto, I'm your friend here don't listen to Iruka it's his fault you didn't pass before and now that your so close he's trying to sabotage you. Give me the scroll and we can take this traitor down together as Konoha shinobi in arms." Mizuki lied threw his teeth trying to get the demon brat to just hand over the goddamn scroll. Then he could kill them both, grab the scroll, and get to ravenous point before the ANBU catches him.

"Stop lying to him Mizuki" Iruka yelled as he finally pulled the last shuriken out of his body a shifted into a combat stance. Mizuki only stared at him for a moment before he broke out into an evil grin as he shifted his attention to Naruto once again.

"Oh I'm not lying to him Iruka you are…hell everyone has been lying to him, Naruto you've been lied to all your life" Mizuki exclaimed as our protagonist's eyes widened in shock at this revelation.

"No Mizuki, it's forbidden" Iruka called out in panic, trying to prevent his favorite student from learning the horrible truth.

"Naruto would you like to know why everyone in the village hates you. Why they beat you, ignore you, and why they want you dead?" Mizuki said, with each word drawing Naruto further and further making him forget his surroundings, his focus only on Mizuki; hoping to finally get some answers. "Everyone you know has been lying you to your face for years, including the Hokage, ever since the decree was issued thirteen years ago" Mizuki continued as he slowly reached for one of the giant shuriken attached to his back, preparing to chuck it at Naruto at a moments notice.

"What…what decree?" Naruto asked hesitantly as the answer he had been looking for was almost in his grasp. He observed Mizuki with rapt attention, watching every little movement hoping for a clue for the answers he wanted…no NEEDED to know.

Mizuki looked down at him, a large sneer appearing on his face before a demented smile took its place. "Thirteen years ago after the Kyuubi attack, the Hokage issued a decree to all the villagers at the time. He told everyone that our beloved Yondaime-sama didn't kill the Kyuubi as we were led to believe. Oh no, as it turns out no body can truly kill a Bijou, they can only seal it. And guess where they sealed the beast that murdered entire clans that night. That's right; the Yondaime sealed that monster inside you. YOU are the beast that nearly destroyed us thirteen years are YOU ARE THE KYUUBI NO KITSUNE" Mizuki yelled at the blond.

Naruto stood there as his brain stopped it higher functions out of shock at the soul crushing news that had just been given to him. His brain for all intensive purposes had just shut down; as every bit of his memory replayed in his head the pieces slowly came together. As he looked back on his entire life he saw every sneer, every hate filled look, and every look of disgust people had ever given him. He saw children's parents pull them away when he got close. It all made since to him now, he finally realized that everyone hated him or lied to him. He was truly alone; he had no one he could truly trust to say cared about him. Mizuki had done what the people of Konoha had been trying to do for years…he crushed Naruto's spirit and willingness to go on.

"Do me a favor Demon Brat, and DIE. When I kill you I'll be considered a hero around the world for being the first person to kill a demon" Mizuki cackled out as he spun the giant shuriken, before chucking it at our hero. While Naruto heard every word Mizuki said to him, he made no movement to dodge or block the giant implement of death spiraling towards him.

'_Why bother no one gives a damn about me…hell I'm probably doing everybody a favor by dying. At least they'll be happy and I will pay for my crimes'_ (AN: to clarify at this moment he believes that he really is the Kyuubi). With his head bowed and his eyes closed he awaited the cold embrace of death, a fraction of a second later the distinct sound of metal piercing flesh was heard and yet he felt no pain. '_Am…am I dead?_' he asked himself, opening his to see if he was in Yomi no Kuni(Land of the Dead) instead of the empty blackness that was supposed to encompass the realm he was greeted to a more terrifying sight. Huddled protectively over him was none other than Iruka, who now had a giant shuriken lodged in his back.

"W…why?" Naruto asked tearfully as he tried to comprehend as to why Iruka would try to save the life of his parent's killer.

"Because Naruto, you and I are more alike than you know, like you after the Kyuubi's attack I became an orphan. I had no one who really cared about me, no one to look out for me; everyone was too busy grieving themselves to look after me. So I took to pranks to garner attention but it didn't fill the void. I should have been there for you Naruto, I know how terrible being alone truly is and I should have tried to help you more than I did. I should have reached out soon, so you wouldn't have to go what I went threw only worse. I can't change the past Naruto but I can help you now, I will be there for you when you need me" Iruka declared sorrowfully with tears streaming down his face as Naruto looked at him with a mix of sadness and hope.

"Don't make me laugh! Iruka had always hated you and he still does, he will never forgive you seeing as you are the beast that killed his parents. He'd do anything to get that scroll from you." Mizuki taunted down at the prone form of Iruka. Naruto still confused and doubtful of who to trust broke out into a sprint, leaving Mizuki and Iruka behind with Iruka calling out for him.

"Well that was expected, after all once he makes up his mind there is no changing it. He's going to use the scroll to enact his revenge on the village who scorned him. You saw the look in that monster's eyes didn't you, that was a look of a demon" Mizuki taunted as he landed on the ground a few feet from the struggling Iruka.

"No…Naruto's not like that" Iruka yelled as he pulled the shuriken from his back and with a might throw chucked it at the smirking Mizuki, who dodged it effortlessly.

"Hm, pitiful, stay right here Iruka once I kill the demon brat and take the scroll I'll be back for you. I suggest you make peace with yourself now" Mizuki replied before taking off in hot pursuit of Naruto.

'_Not on my watch'_ Iruka thought as he slowly got up from his kneeling position, pausing to catch his breath. With determination in his eyes he jumped up into the trees as well, hoping to get to Naruto before Mizuki did.

(Hokage Office)

While this entire ordeal went on in the woods surrounding Konoha, an old man roughly 68 years old sat watching it threw a crystal ball. The old man was about 5'6" in height with short spiky gray hair and matching goatee. His age was very prominent on his face seeing as how he a huge crease on his forehead, numerous wrinkles around his eyes, pronounced cheekbones, a few liver spots and a small wart on his nose. He wore red kimono with a white haori complete with a long white sash. Tied around his neck was a triangular red and white hat with the kanji for fire in the middle in a dark red. This ladies and gentlemen was Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage and surrogate grandfather to our hero. As he watched the events unfold threw his crystal ball, he couldn't help but worry if this got any worse Naruto might accidentally tap in to the Kyuubi's accursed chakra.

(Woods surrounding Konoha: A.K.A The Plot)

As Naruto ran threw the forest as fast as his legs would carry him, he leapt over gaps, swerved around branches, or just avoided anything in his path. Without warning Iruka appeared out of no where running with him just a few meters from his current position.

"Naruto thank Kami-sama I found you, listen to me…the things Mizuki told you were all lies. Quickly give me the scroll, Mizuki is close by and if he gets the scroll he'll kill us" Iruka pleaded to our protagonist who in turn leapt at him with an uppercut to the stomach that flung him out of the canopy and into a tree below.

"It can't be… how did you know? How did you know it was me?" 'Iruka' asked before being enveloped in a cloud of smoke, which dissipated revealing Mizuki indicating that he was using the Transformation Jutsu. "And not Iruka?" Mizuki finished as he glared at Naruto, who was leaning on a tree, the scroll held tightly in his hands.

"Because I'm Iruka" 'Naruto' said before he too was enveloped in a cloud of smoke showing the smirking, but still injured, form of Iruka; who instead of having the actual scroll instead had a large log by his side.

"Iruka you FOOL, why the hell are you protecting that thing? Don't forget it's because of that demon that your parents are dead" Mizuki sneered while getting to his feet, his eyes never leaving Iruka as he glared hatefully at him.

"I don't care what you say Mizuki, you're not getting that scroll" Iruka replied with absolute confidence in his voice.

"As if you can stop me now, look at yourself you're have dead. Besides it doesn't matter, don't you see it Naruto is just like me. He'll use the scroll to further his own power and take revenge on all those who wronged him. That's what monsters do anyway, he'll pour every ounce of hatred into that scroll and destroy the village" Mizuki said with an frustrated expression on his face, seeing as how with every moment he wasted on these fools the greater chance he has of being caught by the ANBU

"You're right…" Iruka replied in an even tone.

Unbeknownst to the two of them, Naruto was not too far away; he was simply hiding behind one of the nearby trees and listened to their conversation as he caught his breath. Despair filled his very being with every hate filled word that spewed from Mizuki's mouth. However nothing that he said compared to the feeling of having Iruka say that he was a demon. '_So…it's all true. Iruka-sensei does hate me. He…he never believed in me. To him I'm nothing more than a monster…a freak_' Naruto thought despairingly reflecting on Iruka's words, as they repeated in his head, it felt like someone was repeatedly stabbing him in the stomach with a kunai.

"That is how demons are…but that's not how Naruto is. He's not like you in anyway you pompous jackass…he's one of a kind you see. Sure he's a slacker but he puts everything he has into what he does, he never quits even for a moment. When he makes a mistake the other students rip him a new one but you know what…his suffering only made him stronger. That's what separates him from a demon or you…so if you still think he's anything like the Kyuubi no Kitsune than you're a dumb ass. He is not a demon…He is Uzumaki Naruto of Konohagakure no Sato and my student" Iruka finished with a smile on his face.

As this revelation on Iruka's part was going on, our protagonist listened on with tears of happiness streaming down his face. '_He does care'_ Naruto thought with utter joy filling his entire being.

Mizuki gaped at Iruka for a few moments before regaining his composure and shaking his head in disbelief at Iruka's 'stupidity'. With a sigh he reached behind him and grabbed his last remaining giant shuriken. "Baka. Do you really believe that bullshit Iruka? You know I was going to kill you later but I change my mind. Now DIE!" Mizuki said as he started spinning the shurikens while lunging at the helpless Iruka.

'_So this is it huh?_' Iruka thought as he awaited death.

Just as Mizuki was about to carve up Iruka like a turkey, Naruto burst out of nowhere and kneed Mizuki right in the kisser. Mizuki was sent flying back, reeling at the force of the blow while the giant shuriken flew off into parts unknown. As Naruto slid on the ground to finally stop himself, Mizuki crashed into the ground kicking up a cloud of dust.

'_Naruto?_' Iruka thought in amazement as the supposed 'Dobe' of the class just sent a Chunin level ninja flying with one blow.

"Huh…not bad for a little brat" Mizuki muttered, rubbing his sore jaw as he struggled to stand up.

"If you ever lay a hand on Iruka-sensei again…I'll kill you" Naruto declared darkly with his head lowered, shadowing his face, making his expression all the more intimidating.

"How hilarious you think you can beat me. Grow up gaki; I can destroy you with a single move. Do you really think you stand a chance in hell against me?" Mizuki said as he stared Naruto down unflinchingly with his fist held high as if to illustrate his 'power'.

"Bring it on you bastard…I'll return it back a thousand-fold" Naruto replied with his index and middle fingers on both of his hands crossed in some odd hand sign.

"Show me what you can do Kyuubi-Gaki" Mizuki yelled in retaliation, pissed off that this little brat thought he could beat him. Ridiculous.

"Kage Bushin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)" Naruto yelled out, surprising both Mizuki and Iruka, before the entire clearing they were in was enveloped in white smoke. When the smoke cleared the sight before the two chunins left them speechless. Surrounding the clearing at all possible angles were hundreds if not a thousand clones of our favorite blond.

'_Naruto…you're not using illusions are you. No those clones are solid, only you could master a jutsu this advanced by accident_' Iruka thought in awe while gawking at the number of clones before his face adorned a look of pride.

Mizuki could only gape at the sheer number of clones, his brain shutting down of a few seconds before rebooting. Shaking his head to get rid of the negative thoughts running around in his head. Taking a deep breath, he calmed down and assessed the situation he was in. '_Alright the gaki has been outnumbered a thousand to one, I don't have enough supplies to take them all out. Think what can I do…I got I'll use the power Orochimaru-Sama gave me just in case_' Mizuki though evilly as he grabbed a flask filled with a dark purple liquid from his pocket. "Alright demon, lets even the playing field a little. With this power my master gave me I'll be unstoppable…behold my power. ANIMAL CURSED SEAL" Mizuki raved on before grabbing the lid off the flask a downing it in one go. Throwing the flask on the ground, Mizuki then grabbed his sides and began laughing insanely as a dark purple aura began to envelop his body.

Naruto, as well as his clones, and Iruka watched on in horror as Mizuki's form began to radically change. The sound of cloth ripping echoed in the clearing as Mizuki's shirt and pants started tearing as his muscles spontaneously tripled in size. His flack jacket's zipper all but exploded as Mizuki's chest tore open the front of his shirt, showing his newly acquired muscles, his flack jacket now resembling a vest. Finally the aura subsided revealing a kneeling Mizuki who was catching his breath. With a final bout of insane laughter he threw his head up revealing his new form. His eyes no long had pupils but instead long slits like a cats. Along his face and body he had distinct tiger like markings, but the thing that scared our hero's was the manic grin that adorned Mizuki's face now complete with fangs.

"This power is…incredible. Come meet your death DEMON" Mizuki challenged, throwing his arms out to the sides leaving himself wide open.

With a mighty yell the clone army threw themselves at the hulking behemoth that was Mizuki. Said behemoth then produced to tear thru them like a hot knife thru butter. No matter what angle they attacked they couldn't land a punch on their opponent who tore thru them with ease. For every clone Mizuki destroyed Naruto made two clones to replace it, unfortunately it didn't do shit.

'_Damn it, this isn't working, my clones can't even scratch him_' Naruto thought as he made more and more clones, that all ended up slaughtered like lambs.

"There you are Gaki" Mizuki yelled as he finished killing the last of the clones before turning his sights on the original Naruto. Disappearing from sight for a brief second, Mizuki appeared in front of a terrified Naruto and with a mighty uppercut sent him flying to the air. However Mizuki was far from over beating up our hero, he leapt up into the air and grabbed one of Naruto's ankles. He then proceeded to play Whack A' Mole with Naruto being the mallet and the cold unforgiving ground being the moles.

"Let him go you bastard" Iruka yelled in rage as he charged the uber charged Mizuki, who just bitch slapped Iruka into a tree.

"Don't interfere Iruka, I'll kill you in just a moment. Now sit there and wait your turn" Mizuki taunted while he continuously punched Naruto in the stomach.

'_Damn_' Iruka thought, clutching his now broken ribs in pain as he watched his favorite student get his ass kicked by Mizuki.

As for our hero, well let's just say he felt like someone dropped the Hokage Mountain on him over ten times. '_What the hell does it take to beat this guy? Nothing seems to faze him at all, not even the Kage Bushin works on him.__ I…I can't beat him, NO I have to beat him or else he will kill Iruka-sensei.__ Okay think how did he get so strong all the sudden…wait a minute. He said it was sort of Cursed Seal, that's it I can use the __Seal Breaker Jutsu __and then he'll be defenseless. Alright you bastard he I come_' Naruto thought as he forced his body out of the ground, shocking Mizuki who thought he had broken every bone in his body. Little did he know that this decision would change the course of the entire world.

"Alright you bastard lets finish this once and for all" Naruto yelled before crossing his fingers and creating a few clones to distract Mizuki while he did the necessary hand signs. With in a few seconds of the clones being slaughtered Mizuki and Naruto charged towards each other for one final clash.

"TAKE THIS DEMON" Mizuki yelled as he clocked his fist back, ready to take Naruto's head off with a final punch.

"SEAL BREAKER JUTSU**" **Naruto yelled as well, his hands covered in dark blue chakra.

Just as Mizuki's fist was about to connect with Naruto's face a wave of chakra pushed him back a few feet, before dissipating entirely. Naruto watched Mizuki intensely, waiting to the jutsu to take effect so he could beat Mizuki half to death. After a few moments of waiting, Naruto's shoulders slumped and a million thoughts ran through his head but he only voice one of them. "What the hell? What went wrong…I did everything ri…" Naruto frustratingly yelled before he paused, his eyes went wide and his mouth agape. Suddenly he let out a blood curtailing scream that echoed through out the forest, as numerous glowing seals appeared over a good portion of his body. Pain filled every cell of Naruto's body, the only way he could describe it as if each cell in his body was being dipped in acid. He screamed and he screamed until he felt himself being pulled into blissful darkness.

'Naruto, what the hell is happening to you' Iruka mentally asked himself, before he and Mizuki were blinded by an enormous pillar of energy that engulfed Naruto's body and continued into the sky.

(Naruto's Mindscape)

"Ugh…where…where am I?" Naruto muttered, rubbing his head as he stood up, his clothes dripping water. A moment or two later he finally snapped out of his daze and took note of his surroundings. It appeared to be a gigantic sewer, complete with large pipes diecorating the wall which seemed to pulse blue and red every couple of seconds. The walls were dirty and cracked from age, and the worst part he was standing knee deep in dark brown water. Despite this place being a dark, damp and generally unpleasant looking place for any sane man…Naruto some how felt safe here. Deciding that standing there like an idiot wasn't going to help him find his way out of there and save Iruka.

After what felt like hours of searching threw corridors, Naruto arrived at what seemed to be the center of the entire sewer. Unlike the other corridors he had gone threw this one had something at the end of it. A large steel gate block his path, with long bars going up about sixty feet, but the odd thing was the object holding the gate shut. A tiny piece of paper with the kanji for 'seal' held the entire thing together.

"Um…Hello? Anybody there?" Naruto asked aloud, his voice echoing throughout the entirety of the sewer.

Unknown to him, the moment he finished his sentence five pairs of eyes groggily opened to find their new surroundings. Now waking up after a good nap was bad enough…now imagine being woken up by an obnoxiously loud voice yelling every five minutes. Yeah that would piss you off too, and that's exactly how one Jaegerjaquez Grimmjow felt at this very moment. Of course add on the confusion of being in an unknown environment with about three people you generally can't stand and you have a very unhappy Espada.

"Where the hell am I?" Grimmjow roared out in anger as he glared distrustfully at his fellow Espada, whom were just as confused as he was. " Alright what did you bastards do to me huh?" Grimmjow accused with his hand firmly grasping his sword, Pantera, ready to unsheathe it in an instant.

"Can you keep it down, I'm still freaking tired" Starrk yawned out, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. This only seemed to piss off Grimmjow even more seeing as how his eye started twitching, while Harribel could only sigh at her fellow Espada's behavior.

Before this situation could escalate into a full out brawl, the loud boisterous voice that awoke them in the first place once again echoed in their ears only this time a lot closer. Soon enough the sound of someone walking through water caught their attention as it seemingly got closer and closer.

"Hello…is someone there?" Naruto called out, hoping to get a reply from someone. He was about to give up hope until he picked up on the sound of voices originating from a corridor on his left. '_Finally someone who can help me'_ Naruto thought, now running as fast as he could through the murky water towards the voices. Turing the corner he found himself face to face with five oddly dressed individuals, all of which were staring back at him with curiosity, indifference or irritation. One by one Naruto carefully studied them, trying to get a feel on the people he was dealing with.

The first person was a dark skinned woman, standing at about 5'9" with short blond hair with three braided locks. Her cold green eyes drifted over Naruto's appearance as did his to her. Her attire was unique to say the least. She wore a while long sleeved jacket with a very high collar, which cover most of her face. The jacket also just barely restrained her massive breast, to which he quickly averted his eyes from; it also seemed to have a zipper right down the middle. The sleeves of her ran down the entirety of her arms, all the way to her hands which had gloves on with black fingers being the only thing to differentiate it from the sleeves. She wore very revealing pants, seeing as how they totally exposed her hips and seemed only to be held on by a black sash around her waist. She wore black socks and odd sandals that every single of the people there, with the exception of the green haired lady, wore. She had a large sword strapped across her lower back, with a purple handle and weird holes on the guard.

The second person was a tall buff man, standing at about 6'1", with short spiky blue hair and light blue eyes with some girly green eye liner under them. He wore a long white torn up jacket with black inner lining, with the collar upturned. The sleeves of the coat were rolled up to about his elbows. He wore white hakama, which he tied to his waist with a black sash, along with wearing black tabi socks and sandals. The man left the coat open, showing off his muscular physique as well as a large scar on his chest. The odd things about this man were two major things. One: along the right side of his face, it looked like someone glued part of a jaw to his face. Two: and this was the big one…he had a freaking hole in his chest and it didn't seem to bother him. Strapped to his waist was an average length katana with a light blue handle and a weird shaped guard.

The third person was semi-short man about 5'6 ½" tall, with pale white skin. He had short messy black hair with some of his bangs falling right in the middle of his face his emotionless green cat- like eyes. He had notably thick eyes brows and for some reason a black upper lip. He had two teal markings running down from the bottom of his eyes, resembling tears running down his face. The look of utter emo on his face put Sasuke's to shame. He wore a white jacket like all the others although his seemed to be longer near the back than the others. He wore white hakama, as with the others, and black tabi socks and wooden sandals. The weird thing with him, like the previous man, was that it looked like he had part of a skeleton glue to his body. This time it looked like part of a broken horned helmet glue to the left side of his head. At his waist was a katana with a green handle and sheathe.

The fourth person there was a tall full figured woman, also standing about 5'9" with long flowing blue-green hair. She had hazel eyes, with were full of curiosity at that moment. She a long red band go across her face, right under her eyes and a large scar run down from her forehead to her nose. Naruto had to duck his head to hide his blush at looking at her state of dress. She wore a tore green shirt that barely held back her massive breasts and exposed her entire mid drift to him. Her skirt was ridiculously short skirt that showed off her mile long lovely legs to him. Clutched tightly in her hand was a katana as well, hers had a light green hilt and the guard looked like two crescent moons back to back. She appeared to have a large ram skull sitting atop of her head, deciding not to bother trying to explain it; Naruto ignored it and moved on.

The final person was a tall tanned man, standing about 6'1 ½" with neck length messy brown hair that was parted down the middle. He had bluish-grey eyes and small faded goatee on his chin. Around is neck, looked to be a lower jaw of some kind of animal, and underneath that he had a hole, just like the one the blue haired man had. He wore a white jacket with a black folded out collar, white hakama tied with a black sash that was styled in an unusual way. To top it all off he wore white gloves on his hands. Around his waist was a katana with a yellow handle and a rectangular pewter guard. Also he had just about the laziest expression he had ever seen, rivaling that of his friend Shikamaru.

"Who the fuck are you?" Naruto and Grimmjow yelled simultaneously, the former pointing at the later. As they glared at one another for a moment, Grimmjow finally had enough. He used a quick sonido and appeared right in front on Naruto, with his hands balled up in Naruto's jacket he lifted him up the ground and held hi eye to eye.

"Alright I've had enough of this shit. Someone better tell me what the fuck is going on here. Or I'm gonna show a cero right up your ass" Grimmjow bellowed out, his hands tightly holding on the now struggling, and violently cursing, Naruto. Before Nelliel could intervene and free Naruto from Grimmjow's grasp, deep, heavy breathing echoed right behind them.

"**I believe I can answer that**" the voice bellowed out, startling everyone. Before anyone could even blink there environment seemed to melt away leaving them in front of a giant cage. Without warning two giant blood red eyes open from behind the darkness of the cage as well a mouth full of razor sharp teeth, curled up into a grin. Finally the entire creature came into view. It was massive; easily 3/4th's the size of a Menos Grande with organish-red fur that covered its entire body. It turned out to be a gigantic fox, only with large bunny like ears and nine flowing tails, swaying lazily back and forth behind it. Weirdly enough it also seemed to have human like hands, complete with opposable thumbs. Sitting in all of its glory sat the bijou that nearly destroyed Konoha thirteen years ago, in front of them sat the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Within a fraction of a second every single member of the Espada had there swords out and ready to fight.

"**Put those toothpicks you call swords away and listen for a moment. Or do you want to die here?" **Kyuubi growled out threateningly, releasing a potent amount of KI to get the point across. Begrudgingly they lowered there weapons, deciding to hear the giant creature out. The Kyuubi nodded in approval, before turning its attention to the partially quivering Naruto, who starred fearfully and angrily at it.

"**Hm…so you're my jailor. You're shorter than I imagined, but I suppose that's not really important now. We have important matters to discuss and little time to do so. You already wasted a lot of time wandering this place" **Kyuubi said as it rose to its full height, staring them down.

"What to you mean little time to discuss? What is going?" Harribel calmly asked voicing the concerns of the others, crossing her arms underneath her already substantial breasts, making them look ever bigger.

"**To answer the blue haired one's question earlier. Currently we are in the ningen's mindscape, while also being inside my seal. As to how you got in here I do not know, or care for that matter. All I know is that, like me, you are now sealed inside his body and bound to his soul. Now if you have experienced what I have during my duration in this damn seal, than you should have had specific dreams did you not?" **Kyuubi inquired to the Espada, who reflected on what they could remember ever since they were engulfed in darkness. It wasn't long before images of a small blond boy, crying to himself appeared in all of there minds. They saw him get mocked; stabbed, beaten, shunned and just about every other horrible thing you could do to a person. It didn't take long for them to figure out that the child in there dreams, was in fact the same gaki before them now.

"You mean that those horrible nightmares were…real" Nelliel sputtered out, tears threatening to pour out her eyes. With a sad nod by the Kyuubi, Nelliel launched herself at Naruto and grabbed him in a hug. Naruto struggled to hold back tears as he recounted his past torture at the hands of his tormentors. After managing to calm down Nelliel, they turned back to the Kyuubi who looked annoyed at having its time wasted.

"**You done? Now I'm going to be blunt here…ningen you're dying" **Kyuubi blurted out, the paused waiting for the inevitable freak out…it didn't have to wait long.

"WHAT?" Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs, before freaking out and running around like a headless chicken. This didn't last very long, before Harribel punched him on top of his skull and knocked him to the ground.

"Why's the Gaki dying?" Grimmjow asked, smirking when he saw the brat clutch the bump on his head.

"**Simple, when this baka tried to use the ****Seal Breaker jutsu**** he neglected to perform it properly. Before you ask ningen, you have to actually TOUCH the seal you want to break. Otherwise you just either waste a bunch of chakra or in your case, break every single seal on you're body" **Kyuubi explained to the horribly confused Naruto.

"Wait a minute, what seals?" Naruto asked, looking at the Kyuubi inquisitively.

"**The seals that old fool you call a Kage ordered to be placed on you to prevent you from remembering who you really are. You see Gaki, when you were born it was decided that you were to be trained as a weapon for this pitiful village. You took to being a shinobi like a fish to water; hell some people called you a prodigy. However the village's 'honorable elders' felt that you were growing too strong to be controlled any longer. So they convinced your 'Jjij' to have your memories and skill sealed away…" **Kyuubi replied to the shell shocked Naruto who tried to convince himself that jiji wouldn't betray him like that. The Espada could only stare at him with pity, or Ulquiorra's version of pity. Without warning one of Kyuubi's tails shot out of the cage and pressed the tip of said tail to the middle of his forehead.

Suddenly Naruto was bombarded with flashes of his old life. He saw himself training with his sensei, going on missions, studying scrolls. As this went on, Naruto was screaming his throat raw before collapsing and gasping for breath. Slowly, he pushed himself off the ground and leaned on a nearby wall for support. Seeing this, Kyuubi decided to go on with its explanation.

"**When you broke the seals on your body, it caused a malfunction in the seal your damn Yondaime used on me. The seal was designed to siphon off my chakra and convert it into yours. However when the seals broke it damaged the transferring matrix, so you've been absorbing much more of my chakra than your body can handle. As a result if this continues, you're going to explode" **Kyuubi continued on, getting wide eyed expressions of horror from everybody there.

"Is there anyway to reverse the damage done without reapplying the seals?" Ulquiorra asked in his usual monotone voice, staring impassively at the Kyuubi as if they all weren't about to die in a horrible explosion.

"**There is one possible way to reverse the damage but it's very risky. The only way I could save the ningen is if we all partially merge with him. ****That would mean he would absorb some of our powers, personality, knowledge etc. Basically this means we are literally destroying part of the Gaki and rebuilding him" **Kyuubi replied, getting the worst reaction yet out of Naruto.

"What? You're going to destroy me. No way, there's got to be another way right?" Naruto said hoping to Kami that there was another alternative.

"**There isn't another way you pitiful hairless ape. This is the only way, or do you want to die? Funny, seeing as how I thought you wanted to save your sensei from the overgrown hairball called Mizuki. Did I forget to mention that the blast radius of the explosion will destroy have the village" **Kyuubi yelled at the panicked Naruto.

Naruto pondered this new information, before coming to this conclusion: if he didn't do anything than Iruka would die one way or another. There was no way in hell he was going to let Iruka die, so with determination evident in his eyes he stood up tall and made his choice. "I'm not just going to roll over and die, possibly taking out the only man to really give a damn about me. I'm going to save Iruka-sensei no matter what!" Naruto said firmly and with absolute conviction in his voice, staring Kyuubi dead in the eyes.

"**Alright ningen…are the rest of you willing to sacrifice some of your power" **Kyuubi asked to the remaining Espada, who watched with some awe at the conviction Naruto had.

"Lets just get this over with" Starrk said with a sigh, putting his hand on Naruto's back, with his fellow Espada doing the same. Naruto turned his head, and gave Starrk an appreciative smile which got a small one in return.

"**I should warn you all now. This is going to be incredibly painful for you all" **Kyuubi warned, getting looks of determination from Naruto and the Arrancar crew. Placing one of its claws on top of Naruto's head, it let out a steady flow of youki, which enveloped Naruto completely. Taking the hint, the Espada started pumping there reiatsu into our hero, creating a multi colored aura around his form. The two powers wrestled for dominance for a moment before merging to make a brilliant white light that blinded them all. The moment the energy hit Naruto, he was thrown out of his mindscape and into a world of incredible pain.

(Real World: Forest Outside Konoha)

It had been a minute since Naruto attempted to defeat Mizuki with the Seal Breaker Jutsu, before being consumed by a torrent of up flowing energy.

"Naruto can you here in there? Naruto answer me" Iruka yelled, pleading for a sign from Kami-sama indicating that Naruto was alright. As if Kami herself was listening, the torrent of energy suddenly started dying down before extinguishing completely. As smoke billowed out of the crater left by the energy phenomenon, the silhouette of a figure could be seen. A strong wind swept threw the clearing, dissipating the smoke and revealing the figure in all his glory to be none other than…Naruto. Only instead of the lovable goofball Iruka had come to know over the years, this one was new and improved.

He stood about 5ft 4in, with a well toned and muscular body, not overly huge but not scrawny, perfect for being a shinobi his age. His hair went down past his shoulders and rested between shoulder blades, now tied up in a pony tail. His face lost all trace of baby fat, the whisker marks on his cheeks darkened and looked like tattoos. His eyes pretty much stayed the same except they were not the bright blue they once were, but now a dark blue with a slitted pupil. (Think Naruto's eyes in Shippuden)

Instead of his normal 'kill me' orange and blue jumpsuit he now wore a white trench coat with the collar up that was torn at the bottom and at the sleeves with a black flame design lining them also with black fabric lining the inside. The sleeves of the coat were tied down from the elbow on tot the wrists with bandages. He wore a pair of white hakama that cover up two long black socks with a pair of traditional samurai sandals covering them. Since he kept his jacket opened and apparently didn't wear anything underneath except a red obi, you could see his well toned chest and right above his four pack abs was a large tattoo of the number nine. Their eyes were drawn to the sword on his right hip. It had a beautiful black sheathe with kanji running up and down the sides. The guard of the sword was fairly simple as it looked like a black shuriken, the handle however was unique. It was made up of what looked to be three skeletal arms wrapped around each other and holding a skull at the end with a ruby in its mouth.

Iruka swallowing lump in his throat, cleared his throat to get the figure's attention. "Naruto?" he asked hesitantly, praying that this person was still the Naruto he knew.

The figure turned to him and smiled revealing his incredibly sharp looking canine teeth. "You bet sensei… I'm back and better than ever…believe it" Naruto said with a smirk with light chuckle at the end, his hands shoved in his jacket's pockets. Turning his attention to Mizuki, narrowing his eyes and cracking his neck before hoping out of the crater, landing right in front of Iruka. "Now where were we?


	2. Showdown

Naruto: Konoha's Arrancar Shinobi

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach; if I did I wouldn't be poor, and I would have legions of fans outside my home.

Please read the author's note at the bottom.

"I'm Batman" Regular Speech

"_I'm Batman" Inner Thought_

"I'm Batman" Jutsu/ technique

"**I'm Batman" **Demonic Speech

Chapter 2: Showdown

Last time:

Iruka swallowing lump in his throat, cleared his throat to get the figure's attention. "Naruto?" he asked hesitantly, praying that this person was still the Naruto he knew.

The figure turned to him and smiled revealing his incredibly sharp looking canine teeth. "You bet sensei… I'm back and better than ever…believe it" Naruto said with a smirk with light chuckle at the end, his hands shoved in his jacket's pockets. Turning his attention to Mizuki, Naruto narrowed his eyes and cracked his neck before hoping out of the crater, landing right in front of Iruka. "Now where were we?

Now here we go the big fight Naruto the Arrancar vs. Tony the Ti… whoops I mean Mizuki the Human Fur Ball…fight.

(Forests outside Konoha: Random Clearing)

Iruka could only stare in absolute awe, his brain trying to come up with some rational explanation as to how the lovable goofball he knew, was in fact the same person standing protectively in front of him. '_Naruto…is that still you? Are you still the same kid who dreams of being Hokage? Or have you changed completely?' _Iruka thought, his mind flip-flopping between images of the old Naruto and images of the individual claiming to be him.

Mizuki glared hatefully at Naruto, realizing that little light show just announced their current position to every ANBU and jonin in the village. "Nice trick Gaki, but it doesn't matter what you do…there is no way you can possibly defeat me" Mizuki growled out, trying to keep up his tough façade.

Naruto stared at him intensely for a few moments, his head cocked to the side, before lowering his gaze. Mizuki smirked at this, thinking that the Demon-Gaki finally realized he was utterly outmatched and lowered his head in defeat. That ridiculous sentiment was shattered, when the Naruto's shoulders started moving up and down. Not from crying as Mizuki would have liked, but in laughter. A cold, mocking chuckle escaped from Naruto's mouth, which gradually increased in volume before he erupted into hysterical laughter.

"WHATS SO FUNNY DEMON?" Mizuki bellowed out in rage, his face contorted into a feral sneer. '_How dare this…abomination laugh at me'_ Mizuki thought, clenching his fists tightly in anger.

Naruto, after a few moments, finally managed to a get a hold of his laughter, with that he lifted his head up and stared Mizuki right in the eyes. "I'm laughing at you and at your supposed invincibility. You believe just because you got a power boost from a cursed hikey, that you can beat me. You're a sad little man Tora-Teme, with delusions of grandeur that you couldn't possibly achieve. Let's not forget, thanks to the actions of our 'esteemed' village elders I wasn't even a tenth of my real strength when we started this. So congratulations Mizuki, you succeed in beating around a thirteen year old child with a record setting amount of seals on him. Does that make you feel like big man? Huh, Mizuki." Naruto taunted, his eyes not once leaving Mizuki. His posture was totally relaxed, as if he didn't even consider him threat at all.

With each word that came from Naruto's mouth, Mizuki only grew angrier and angrier until he could take no more. With a bestial roar he launched himself at Naruto with the intent to utterly crush him, his feet leaving spider web cracks on the ground. Mizuki threw a punch straight at Naruto's torso; aiming to crack all of his ribs in one go and send them into his lungs. Only for Naruto to lazily throw up one of his hands and catch his punch at full impact, seeing as how the ground beneath Naruto cracked under the force.

"Is that the best you can do? Pity, and here I was hoping to get an exciting fight. Oh well, I guess you always get what you want?" Naruto drawled out with a yawn, a look of absolute boredom and disappointment adorning his face. Before Mizuki could even blink, Naruto struck out with a palm strike with his unoccupied hand, hitting Mizuki square in the chest.

Mizuki barely had time to breathe before he was shot backwards about thirty feet or so, until his back collided with a tree. '_What the hell was that? It felt like I just got hit with a freaking sledge hammer. How strong has this brat become? This isn't going to be as easy as I thought' Mizuki_ wondered, rubbing his sore chest, before getting up and assuming a combat stance. Not wasting a moment, Mizuki charged forward with his elbow on a collision course with Naruto' face.

At the very last second, Naruto ducked low to avoid the blow while leaping slightly aside, before delivering multiple vicious uppercuts to Mizuki's unguarded kidney. Before he could even consider grabbing is injured side, Mizuki was suddenly assaulted from behind via a roundhouse kick to the back of his head. Mizuki stumbled forward a bit before lashing out behind him with a back handed strike. Said strike was blocked by Naruto's forearm, unfortunately for our hero Mizuki capitalized on this. Turning on his heel slightly he quickly withdrew his arm and rushed forward, his shoulder successfully making contact.

After ramming Naruto into one the few remaining trees in the clearing, Mizuki brutally kneed Naruto in the stomach. Naruto let out a pain filled gasp as he folded over; seemingly shocked by Mizuki's surprisingly painful blow, though thankful it wasn't nearly as painful as it could have been. Grinning evilly, Mizuki unleashed a powerful uppercut that sent our hero's head snapping upwards, his body lifted off the ground a few feet. Mizuki, however, was far from finished wailing on Naruto. With a mightily yell, Mizuki delivered a palm strike of his own, directly into our disorientated hero's chest, sending him flying out of the clearing.

"NARUTO" Iruka shouted in panic, trying to get up and help his student only for him to clutch his broken ribs. '_Damn it all' _Iruka thought, as he watched on helplessly, cursing himself not for being stronger.

"Well that was easier than expected, looks like the demon was all talk after all. Now that it's dead, it's your turn now Iruka. Don't worry, on account of our past friendship I'll make it quick" Mizuki said with an insane gleam in his eyes, making it clear to Iruka that Mizuki didn't give any semblance of a fuck about killing him.

A nervous sweat went down Iruka's body, which only got worse with every step Mizuki took towards him. As Mizuki got closer and closer, Iruka's heart started beating faster. The worst part of this entire cluster-fuck of a situation, Iruka surmised, was all he could do was sit there and wait for Mizuki to kill him.

However Kami seemed fit to cut Iruka a break, when a yellow and white streak appeared out of no where and set Mizuki backwards. Said streak turned out to be a pissed off looking Naruto, who glared at Mizuki with such contempt.

"I thought I made it clear the first time. If you touched Iruka-sensei again, I said I would kill you and I intend to keep my word" Naruto said angrily, before turning his head slightly and flashed the shocked Iruka a small grin. Without wasting a single moment, Naruto launched himself towards Mizuki. Kicking off the ground, Naruto maneuvered his body in midair and delivered a perfect double kick to Mizuki's face. Using Mizuki's face as a spring board, Naruto back flipped onto the ground, before delivering a barrage of punches that sent Mizuki out of the clearing.

'_Damn it. Naruto please be alright'_ Iruka thought, mulling over his uselessness at this moment time, unable to help his student in any way. Resolving to himself that if he made it out of this situation alive, he would train his ass off to make sure this never happened again.

(Random Clearing)

After crashing through countless trees and shrubs, Mizuki wound up in another clearing about fifty or so feet away from Iruka's position. Finally coming to a halt, Mizuki took a series of pain filled breaths, each intake of air igniting pain throughout his upper body. Numerous bruises littered Mizuki's torso, each one correlating with one of Naruto's punches. Blood trickled down from his busted lip, before falling to the ground below. '_Fucking hell…if I waste anymore time here, I'm guaranteed to be caught by the ANBU. They'll send me to Ibiki for sure_' Mizuki thought, before involuntarily shivering at the thought of meeting the head of the Torture and Interrogation Department.

His inner thoughts were interrupted by the sound of…a sonic boom. He didn't have much time to ponder this before a sent flying again by a kick to the face. Rubbing his sore jaw, Mizuki raised his head and glared hatefully at Naruto, who returned it in full. Ignoring the agonizing pain sweeping through his body, Mizuki shakily stood up, his chest heaving with labored breaths. A white hot rage flowed through Mizuki's veins at seeing the small smirk that was plastered on Naruto's face.

"Don't you dare mock me DEMON" Mizuki roared out in anger, while more dark, vile chakra swirled around his form once more, obscuring Mizuki from view. It continued to grow until Mizuki was little more than a twisted silhouette to Naruto's perspective. Gritting his teeth, Mizuki forced more and more chakra from the seal, his overwhelming rage taking over his common sense. The sound of cloth ripping and tearing echoed through out the clearing, as Mizuki's muscles expanded to ridiculous proportions. Mizuki's pain filled grunts were easily audible to Naruto, whom stood there watching with keen interest. Finally the vile chakra subsided, slowly revealing the newly transformed Mizuki in all his monstrous glory.

He now stood at roughly 7'4", his entire body bulging with insane amounts muscle, which had grown about to twice the size they were from the last transformation. Mizuki's body was now covered in short orange and white fur with black stripes littering his form, making him look more like a tiger than ever. All that remained of his clothes were his now tattered pants that barley hung on to his body and a few pouches attached to his belt that somehow survived. His face was now twisted in an animalistic scowl, befitting his new appearance Mizuki's ears lengthened considerably, the tips of his ears almost reaching the top his head. Steam shrouded Mizuki's hands and feet for a moment, before revealing the clawed appendages.

Mizuki's body shook for a moment, before throwing his head back and laughing manically. '_I can feel the power coursing through my veins…this is more than I ever could have imagined. No one can match my power now, Orochimaru-sama actually delivered on his promise'_ Mizuki thought inwardly, basking in the glow of his artificial power.

"Can you feel it demon? This is what real power feels like, and with it…, he he, I will kill you for the humiliation you put me through." Mizuki gloated, his voice full of arrogance, looked down at his hands as he studied his newly acquired claws with a sick fascination. This went on for a few seconds before Mizuki let a bloodcurdling war cry and rushed towards Naruto with the force of a stampede. So, mid-stride, Mizuki clocked his arm back and, with a mighty yell, jumped up in the air brought his arm down into a furious punch downwards towards Naruto's body.

Naruto, in turn, jumped backwards just in time to avoid Mizuki's punch which got imbedded deep in the ground. Snarling in rage Mizuki violently tore his arm out of the cold, unforgiving ground and charged at Naruto like a angry bull, with his arms spread out and claws at the ready. Mizuki lashed out with a powerful claw strike, which Naruto dodged easily; further pissing off Mizuki. Forgoing any sense of form or technique, Mizuki just started swiping at Naruto, hoping to claw out his throat, who continued to dodge Mizuki's attacks. This went on for a few moments before Naruto decided that enough was enough.

Instead of dodging Mizuki's feral strike, Naruto threw his arm up and knocked Mizuki's arm astray, leaving him open. Quickly getting inside Mizuki's guard, Naruto delivered a picture perfect uppercut to Mizuki's chin, forcing his head back as he let out a grunt of pain. Pressing his advantage, Naruto quickly kneed Mizuki in the stomach, the force of which caused Mizuki to almost fold in half.

'_What…the…hell? How the hell is this abomination so strong'_ Mizuki thought, as blood escaped from his gaping mouth and falling to the ground, staining the earth red. Mizuki's body temporarily stopped moving on its own, only standing up thanks to Naruto's fist firmly planted in Mizuki's gut.

"So this is the peak of your tainted power, hm? This is what you were boasting about like an arrogant blow hard. Simply pathetic! Though, I should have expected this from trash such as yourself" Naruto said in a dull monotone, his voice void of emotion and as cold as the never ending winters of Yuki no Kuni. Naruto finally dislodged his fist from Mizuki's stomach, allowing the overgrown fur ball to fall to the ground. Or at least he would have, had Naruto not kicked him square in the chest, sending him flying fifteen feet.

Mizuki, who finally could feel his limbs again, quickly threw his arms down and used his massive claws to anchor himself to the ground. Clutching his battered torso, Mizuki heaved as he struggled to take even the smallest of breaths. Mizuki shakily raised his head, and glared at Naruto with every ounce of hate he could muster. This was soon replaced by a slight look of confusion, as Mizuki looked at Naruto closely and seemingly his new appearance.

The first thing Mizuki noticed was the shift in Naruto's posture; previously he was relaxed and partially slouching over. But now his body was ramrod straight, his posture was rigid and machine-like, thus without any noticeable flaw. His skin was lightly paler than it before, going from a deep tan to a lighter skin tone. His normally spiky hair seemingly lost its life, as it was now completely straightened and a little darker than normal. His eyes were cold and void of all emotion, which reminded a lot of the Hyuuga Clan's Byakugan. To Mizuki, the worst thing about Naruto's eyes was the feeling that he was peering into your very soul.

Before Mizuki could ponder any more on whether or not Naruto was fucking with him, Naruto formed a cross hand-seal and exclaimed "Kage Bushin no Jutsu". Within a fraction of a second two puffs of smoke appeared on either side of him. When the smoke cleared it revealed two clones of Naruto standing next to him, both of which had the same emotionless mask on their faces.

"Let's start round two shall we" Naruto said coldly, nodding to his clones, they nodded before rushing Mizuki. Mizuki grit his teeth and willed his body up, and in a flash was charging the clones head on.

(Meanwhile with Iruka)

'_Come on already, move dammit_' Iruka thought angrily as he once again attempted to get up and help Naruto. Alas for poor Iruka, his busted ribs prevented him from even getting up due to the massive amounts of pain that shot through his body when he tried. His inner thoughts were cut off by the sound of leaves rustling, and not the kind caused by the wind. Oh no, this was the kind of rustling caused by someone or something making there way thru it.

Mentally praying that the sound he was hearing wasn't Mizuki coming back to kill him, Iruka kept his eyes locked on to the direction the sound was originating from. Iruka's worries were alleviated when two ANBU operatives burst from the sea of leaves surrounding Konoha.

The first ANBU was obviously female, she had long purple hair that ended somewhere around her ass and her lower back. On her face she wore a porcelain neko mask with three red stripes adorning it. She wore standard ANBU armor, which consisted of a light grey padded flak jacket that covered her entire torso. On the left of her back, was a long black katana, ready at a moment's notice to be unsheathed. On her arms she wore black gloves which went all the way to her mid bicep, with grey forearm bracers on top. An ANBU tattoo was easily visible on her right shoulder. She wore light black pants, with bandages wrapped around her right thigh and to top it all off she wore standard black shinobi sandals.

The second ANBU was a tall male, with spiky brown hair, easily visible behind his porcelain tora mask with green and red markings adorning it. His attire was the same standard uniform as his compatriot though his ANBU tattoo was on his left shoulder and his sword was on the right side of his back instead of the left.

"Are you alright Umino-san?" Neko asked Iruka, as another ANBU arrived on the scene and proceeded to begin healing his wounds. Iruka sighed in relief when the medical chakra made contact with his ribs, which he could feel already mending themselves back together.

"Much better now thank you…but that's not important now! You have to go and help Naruto before something terrible happens" Iruka replied frantically, his tone panicky and with each word only got more and more worried.

"Uzumaki-san? Why should we assist him, seeing as how he stole the Sacred Scroll of Sealing?" Neko replied, confusion evident in her voice. She spared a look at her fellow ANBU hoping to see if they could shine some light on the subject. Alas they just as confused as she was. Seeing as they were any help Neko turned her attention back to Iruka and said "Please elaborate Umino-san, what exactly happened here?" After securing the scroll the ANBU in the tora mask made his way over to where Iruka was, intend on getting to the bottom of the debacle.

Sighing to himself, Iruka took a deep breath and recalled the events leading up to this point. He told them everything, from failing Naruto earlier than day to Naruto tackling Mizuki out of the clearing. By the end of the tale, every ANBU there was up to speed on what really happened.

"I see…so Mizuki is the traitor and Uzumaki-san was simply a pawn in his scheme" Neko summed up aloud, resisting the urge to remove her mask and rub her temples to get rid of the headache that brewing in her head. Turning head towards her fellow ANBU, she went through several ANBU handsigns, relaying their new orders without ever saying a word. Nodding in return the tora ANBU formed a ram seal and disappeared in a flurry of leaves.

"Umino-san I have done all can for now, your ribs should be back to full strength in about a week. But for now I need to take you hospital to rest" said the tori masked ANBU who healed him, as he helped Iruka up and slid an arm over his shoulder.

"No, don't take me to the hospital yet! I have to make sure Naruto is safe and sound" Iruka pleaded desperately. Tori sighed, before glancing at Neko who begrudgingly nodded. Neko calmly walked over to Tori and Iruka and placed her hand on Tori's shoulder and with a simple hand sign they were gone. The last thought that went through Iruka's mind was 'please be safe Naruto'

(Naruto's position)

"Dammit stay still you little DEMON" Mizuki snarled out, as he once again failed to make contact with Naruto's clones. As this was going on in the real Naruto observed with a critical eye, steadily taking in every bit to of information he could glean from Mizuki's fighting style.

Deciding he had seen enough Naruto rushed forward with a quick Sonido, and prepared to fire off a haymaker to the side of Mizuki's face. However this did not work out well a Naruto's favor, but he failed to take into account was Mizuki's now enhanced hearing. It was only thanks to his advanced hearing that barely allowed Mizuki to turn in time to avoid Naruto's fist from firmly planting itself in his face. Taking advantage of this rare opportunity, Mizuki quickly pivoted on his heel and delivered a devastating backhand to Naruto's midsection which sent him flying.

Following this up a Mizuki managed to grab one of the clones head, and with a quick jerk of his arm broke its neck, making it disappear in to a puff of smoke. The other clone having seen this, it quickly jumped back to avoid its clone brethren's fate. At least it would have, unfortunately Mizuki leapt forward in a burst of speed before it could jump back and with a mighty roar slit its throat, and like its brethren it to disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Mizuki smirked confidently, his ego increasing having successfully killing both of Naruto's clones. "No more playing around you little bastard! Doton: Underground Projection Fish Jutsu" Mizuki shouted arrogantly, as he went to a number of hand-seals. Suddenly his form started to sink into the ground, Mizuki smirked before he completely disappeared into the earth, seemingly leaving Naruto alone in the clearing.

'This is… problematic' Naruto thought to himself, as he kept an ever vigilant eye out for Mizuki. The clearing was almost perfectly silent, the only sounds that were heard were that of the grass crunching under Naruto sandals. Every second that passed by only served to increase Naruto's unease, his eyes constantly shifting, looking from place to place trying to even the smallest trace of Mizuki's whereabouts. After what felt like hours of tension filled waiting, Mizuki finally made his move against Naruto.

Almost as quickly as Mizuki disappeared, an entire platoon of Mizuki's emerged from the ground, each with a bloodthirsty grin on their faces. Naruto narrowed his eyes at this development; his brain running through multiple possibilities on how to proceed. His inner planning was put on hold for a moment, seeing as how with a war cry, the Mizuki platoon sprinted towards him.

With his hand grasping his katana's handle firmly, Naruto rushed into battle against the feline behemoth horde. Unsheathing his katana in less than a second, Naruto twisted out of the way of the way of a hammer blow by one of the Mizuki's. Not wasting anytime, Naruto swung outwards and promptly cut through Mizuki's side; exactly where his kidneys would be. However, instead of getting a pained yell from Mizuki and blood cascading to the ground, Mizuki simply dissipated, revealing it to be nothing more than a standard Bushin (Clone).

Scowling slightly, Naruto pressed on with his counterattack, slicing at clones left and right in hopes of striking the original. Ducking under a swipe from another Mizuki, Naruto stabbed 'Mizuki' in the gut, only for it to vanish into nothingness as well. With each felled clone, Naruto only grew more and more agitated. The horde of Mizuki's circled around Naruto, all of which were grinning maliciously at him. A single Mizuki stepped forward, as if the chosen speaker for his clone brethren.

"Give up demon, you'll never defeat us at this rate" 'Mizuki' taunted before he and two other 'Mizuki's' launched themselves at our hero.

"We'll see" Naruto replied emotionlessly, his grip on his katana tightening slightly in agitation. Taking a calming breath through his nose; Naruto used Sonido to quickly tear thru rampaging Mizuki's clones, which all disappeared at the same time. Moving on quickly Naruto dodged a kick aimed at his head, he quickly swung his sword through 'Mizuki's' leg, which caused it to disappear. Ducking to avoid simultaneous attacks, Naruto jumped over one 'Mizuki', his sword cutting through its head, causing it to dissipate. Naruto kept moving, never slowing down for a moment as he decimated the feline behemoth horde. Soon enough Naruto was all alone in the clearing once more, his sword drawn and body tensed, as he panted slightly. However it was at this moment, the real Mizuki decided to strike.

Appearing almost out of nowhere in front of Naruto, the real Mizuki partially emerged from the ground and delivered a lightning quick knife strike through Naruto's stomach. Mizuki smiled sadistically as he watched a look of complete and utter shock appear on Naruto's face. Naruto's sword clattered to the ground, its wielder no longer able to hold it. Naruto for his part could only look at Mizuki's arm going through his torso in horror. Well at least for a few seconds, the look of utter horror shifting into one of amusement as a smirk made its way onto Naruto's face.

And with that, Naruto disappeared in a puff of white smoke leaving a gaping Mizuki behind. And its place was left a completely demolished log, the remains of which collapsed to the ground. Mizuki simply starred at the broken remnants of what used to be a perfectly good log, with a dumbfounded look on his face.

He was shaken out of his momentary disbelief by an incredible amount pain on the side of his face. The source of said pain turned out to be the real Naruto, who wasted no time and delivered a powerful roundhouse kick to the side of Mizuki's face. 'What the...?' Mizuki thought before his body was forced out the earth, and sent flying backwards.

Naruto dashed after the temporally stunned Mizuki, a look of steely determination on his face. In no time flat, Naruto caught up to battered and bloodied Mizuki and began his assault. A left cross from Naruto sent Mizuki's head veering to the side, blood and spittle spewing from Mizuki's mouth. Naruto continued on beating in Mizuki's face, a right hook forced Mizuki to take a couple steps backwards as he clutched his aching face. A well placed uppercut to Mizuki's stomach knocked the breath out him, his body slumping forward as he heaved. Naruto followed this up with a spinning roundhouse kick that knocked Mizuki flat on his ass, groaning in pain.

"This is the end Mizuki, if it's any consolation…you put a better fight than I thought you would" Naruto said as he calmly walked towards the downed Mizuki, his sword griped firmly in his hand. Naruto's footsteps echoed in Mizuki's ears, who in turn, eyed Naruto's sword with a healthy amount of terror. Naruto raised his arm above his head, his sword gleaming, somewhat, ominously in the moonlight. Mizuki's eyes followed the downward arc of Naruto's sword, as it descended towards his neck, ready to decapitate him. The world slowed down in Mizuki's perspective, the blade seemed to move in slow motion as it got ever closer to slicing open his jugular vein. Mizuki scrunched up his face and turned it to the side, as he waited to the blade to make contact. Just as Naruto's blade was going to connect with Mizuki's throat a miracle, for Mizuki anyway, occurred.

The very moment Naruto was about to cut Mizuki's head off, he exploded in an enormous cloud of organish smoke. Mizuki, not questioning this, quickly scooted away from the smoke, relief easily visible on his face. Mizuki shakily stood up, his hands planted on his knees for support, as he watched the smoke cover with an intense glare.

A soft breeze swept through the clearing, dissipating the smoke cloud slowly until it completely vanished; the sight that Mizuki was greeted both shocked and infuriated him. Instead of the blond demon that he had been fighting against a few moments ago, in his place was…a confused five year old boy. '_What the hell is going on? Where the hell did the demon go? _' Mizuki thought angrily, looking around for any clue to where Naruto has disappeared to. '_Wait a minute…no, it could be'_ Mizuki pondered mentally, as he look a closer look at the five year old in question. To his shock, and somewhat irritation for not figuring it out sooner, the five year old boy was in fact Uzumaki Naruto.

Speaking of our favorite blond protagonist, he was indeed now in the form of a five year old. Unlike with his previous transformations, both his physical appearance and his clothes went through major changes. First was his height, which had considerably decreased, Naruto now stood roughly 3'9", a little bit taller than the average five year old. In terms of physical appearance, Naruto actually looked remarkably like he did before when he was the class dobe. His face had regained his baby fat, making it rounder than before, though not too much. His hair was back to being almost blindingly yellow, as well as back to its old style, albeit slightly longer than before. His eyes were wider now and were filled to the brim with childlike innocence and wonder. His nose was somewhat tiny in proportion to the rest of his face, and slightly red, giving it a button look to it.

In the clothing department, Naruto no longer wore his open white haori or, thank Kami, his trademark orange jumpsuit. He now wore a white hoodie, which was about two or three sizes too big for him. The sleeves of which completely covered his arms and hands, the ends actually dragged on the ground. The main body of the hoodie went down to about his knees. Adorning the front of the hoodie was a large black number nine, broken up the zipper going down the middle of the hoodie. The hood itself was pulled down and the end of it rested near the middle of his back. In terms of footwear, Naruto neither wore shinobi sandals or the samurai sandals he wore earlier. No, instead he wore shiny black boots that squeaked whenever he took a step.

As if this wasn't weird enough, Mizuki noticed two things that freaked him out, however hypocritical it may be considering his recent…acquisitions. For you see a top of Naruto's head were to blood red fox ears, and a medium-sized bushy fox tail, of the same color, coming out from underneath the jacket. If Mizuki didn't hate Naruto with every fiber of his being, he would be jealous of them for one simple reason. If any kunoichi saw Naruto as he was at that particular moment, they would glomp him to their chests while screaming "KAWAII".

The newly transformed Naruto looked around at his environment, his sparkling with child like wonder. Eventually his gaze fell on, the still shocked, Mizuki, who starred at him with his mouth agape. "Hi! I'm Naru, wanna pway?" the newly dubbed Naru said, with his eyes full of joy and a big, innocent smile on his face, revealing that he was missing a few of his teeth. Blinking owlishly, Naru leaned his head closer and really took a good look at Mizuki. Under normal circumstances, when he looked at Mizuki, his mind would have associated him with 'enemy'. However to Naru's childlike mentality, he took in Mizuki's feline features a little differently than a normal person would. With an even wider smile on his face and his arms stretched out to his sides, as if he was asking for a hug, Naru exclaimed one simple word that disturbed Mizuki on multiple levels.

"KITTY"

With that said Naru seemingly disappeared into thin air, Mizuki stared at the spot Naru had previously stood. '_Where the hell did he go?_' Mizuki thought, as he looked everywhere around him trying to find where that little bastard disappeared to. This stopped rather quickly when felt a sudden weight rest upon his shoulders. He didn't have time question this, before he felt an ungodly amount of pain originating from his feline ears. Mizuki thrashed about wildly, the pain making him slightly delirious as he screamed in agony.

This went on for a minute or two, until Mizuki heard, as best as he could at the moment, the sound of a child's laughter. Putting two and two together, Mizuki finally figured out what was causing him agonizing pain. With his teeth gnashed together, Mizuki forcefully ripped Naru from his shoulders and tossed him towards a tree. Naru, in turn, simply giggled and exclaimed a loud "WHEE!" as he flew towards a tree trunk. Twisting slightly in midair Naru, instead of crashing into the tree like Mizuki wanted, grabbed the tree trunk, like he was giving it a hug, and slid safely to the ground.

"Dammit it you fucking demon, quit screwing with me. That's it have had enough of your tricks, I'm going to kill you" Mizuki bellowed in rage, as he rubbed his aching ears for a moment before clenching his fists tightly.

Naru starred at Mizuki with a confused look on his face, his head titled to the side in such a way that would cause any women in the area to start cooing at him. "Silly kitty Trix are for kids (1)" Naru giggled out, further pissing Mizuki off, if the twitch in his left eye was any indication.

Without saying a word, Mizuki charged toward the ever happy Naru, who stood there rooted in place, his tail wagging happily behind him. In no time flat, Mizuki was standing right in front of Naru, a knife strike already being sent towards the adorable chibi of an arrancar. Like last time, his attack failed to hit, arm once again imbedded in the ground, though no as deep as last time. Easily ripping his arm out of the ground, Mizuki swiped at Naru, who quickly jumped back about ten feet away, waving at Mizuki happily when he landed. Reaching into one of his few remaining pouches, Mizuki grabbed two smoke bombs and flung them at Naru's feet obscuring his view.

Taking advantage of Naru's lack of sight and his enhanced senses, Mizuki dashed towards Naru's exact position in the smoke cloud. Mizuki lashed out with a kick that successfully made contact with Naru's face, sending him flying out of the smoke cloud about twenty feet in the air.

'_Why is the kitty being so mean to me? I just want'a pet him, I snuck up on him so he wouldn't wun away. What I do wong?' _Naru thought despairingly as he floated in midair, a stinging pain coursing through his cheek where Mizuki kicked him. Naru's inner dilemma was interrupted by Mizuki, who used Chakra Threads (2) to grab Naru from the air and pull him towards him with all his might.

Mizuki grinned sadistically as he watched Naru get closer and closer, until he was right were he wanted him. Launching his arm out, Mizuki grabbed Naru by the front of his hoodie and with sick delight, kneed him in the stomach. Throwing Naru slightly in the air, Mizuki reared his fist back and punches Naru as hard as he could, sending him flying backwards. At least until Mizuki once again used Chakra Threads to pull him back, where he proceeded to punch him again. This went on a few more times; to an outside observer this scene would look like a sadistic version of paddleball.

Finally Mizuki had enough of this, so with a mighty tug he sent the slightly crying Naru towards him again. Instead of punching him away, Mizuki grabbed Naru by his head and slammed him into the ground. Mizuki let go of Naru's head and moved his hand to his throat, where he began to choke the life out of our pint sized hero.

"This is it demon, this is where I finally kill you for the humiliation you put me thru. I can't tell you how long I've wanted to do this, everyday having to resist the urge to snap your neck in class. But it's been worth it, all of it, leading up to this point now, any last words Kyuubi?" Mizuki screamed directly in Naru's face, a look of utter insanity on his face, with drool running down from his lips and madness in his eyes.

Naru coughed and sputtered, as he tried to get even the smallest breath of air into his lungs. Naru's lungs burned, as they valiantly fought to keep him, but were slowly losing that particular battle. His little heart bas beating, what felt like, a hundred miles an hour. His arms and legs flailed about, trying anything to escape the vice like grip Mizuki had on his throat. Tears poured from his eyes, his vision blurring in and out as all light seemed to give way to blackness, the only sight visible was Mizuki's mad grin. "…d…ki" Naru coughed out, his voice hoarse, which was music to Mizuki's ears.

"What was that demon? I CAN'T HEAR YOU" Mizuki laughed, relaxing his grip on Naru's throat slightly as he moved closer to Naru to hear the demon's final words. A cruel grin nearly split Mizuki's face in half; as he listened to Naru suffer at his hands.

Naru greedily took in as much air as he could, his vision returned almost to normal, though the corners of his eyes were still a little blurry. Unknown to Mizuki the look of sadness and pain that was on his face earlier was replaced by a new one. A look of absolute rage made its way onto, so much so that Naru's normally kind blue eyes shifted into crimson pools of anger. "Bad…KITTY" Naru yelled in Mizuki's ear, as he kicked Mizuki square in the chest, sending him rocketing towards the end of the clearing.

'_What the hell It felt like I just got hit by Tsunade_' Mizuki thought as his body bounced periodically on the ground, like a skipping stone against a calm pond. Mizuki also thanked Kami that Animal Curse Seal made his bones a lot stronger, or his spine would have snapped like an Akamichi on Weight Watchers. His thought process was interrupted by Naru who appeared underneath him and delivered an almost bone breaking kick to his back, which send him flying towards the heavens. Naru glared at Mizuki's rapidly ascending form, before he exploded in a familiar cloud of organish smoke.

Bursting from the smoke, Naruto quickly jumped up as high as he could, using a Sonido or two Naruto finally achieved Mizuki's current altitude. Naruto appeared right above the rapidly descending Mizuki, a bloodthirsty smirk plastered on his face.

"Well Tora-Teme I hope you enjoyed that, because that was your last chance. Now it's my turn…oh, and when you arrived in hell, tell them Uzumaki Naruto send you. Because by the time I kick the bucket, hell is going to be overflowing with arrogant assholes like you." Naruto said darkly, his fist already reared back ready to go. Having said his due, Naruto shot out his fist and like that Naruto's barrage of blows begun.

Punch after punch, kick after kick, the blows never ended, when one attack connected two more were already in the works. Pain…pain filled every pore of Mizuki's body, that only seemed to get worse with every vicious blow that was struck. Bruises formed, blood splattered and hell, even a few bones broken under Naruto's assault. Naruto's arms and legs were little more than blurs in the eyes of Mizuki, who could do nothing but take it. With every blow Naruto struck, it only accelerated their descent towards the rapidly approaching ground. Mizuki and Naruto stared hatefully at each other, their hair twisting and constantly flowing as the air rushed past them. The only sounds really audible at that moment were that of wind rushing past them and Naruto's coat flapping in the wind. As the ground drew near Naruto quickly charging chakra into leg, he performed a brutal axe kick which sent Mizuki plummeting towards the ground below.

Mizuki crashed into the nearby forest with explosive velocity, his body tearing entire trees from the ground and a dust cloud to appear, shrouding him from view. Naruto landed on the ground, the epicenter of which had spider web cracks coming from it, as he watched the smoke cloud intently. The sound of pained grunting and lumber being moved, confirmed to Naruto that Mizuki, unfortunately, was still among the living. Though when the smoke cleared, it revealed he was, by far, in no way shape or form in perfect condition.

Mizuki was leaning on one of the few remaining trees left standing from his crash, clutching his stomach/ribs as he took labored pain filled breaths. Blood cascaded down the left side of his face, continuous dripping on the ground as he made even the smallest head movements. Mizuki's right eye was glaring daggers at him, seeing as how his left one was closed, from either injury or to prevent the blood running down his face from blinding him, Naruto couldn't say. Blood trickled down from the sides of Mizuki's mouth as well as his busted lip, all of which either dribbled on him or splattered on the ground. Numerous bruises and cuts littered Mizuki's body, his chest and face taking the brunt of the damage.

Numerous shards of wood were imbedded into Mizuki's body, like wooden shrapnel, ranging from tiny splinters to huge pieces of bark stabbing into his flesh. His body looked like an acupuncturist with access to Mokuton (Wood Release) went to town on his body. However the worst injury, from what Naruto could see, that Mizuki acquired from his crash landing was a huge shard of wood lodged deep in his right calf. Warm blood trickled down Mizuki's leg, staining his pants a dark red in the process, as it made its way towards the ground. Mizuki let out a pained yell as he tried to take a step, only for him to fall on his hands and knees, breathing heavily.

Mizuki glanced back at the source of his crippling pain, the shard of wood almost mocking him with how deep the wound was. Gritting his teeth, Mizuki reached back, grimacing as he did so, and grasped the shard firmly. The nerves in his leg ignited as soon as his hand made contact, the pain was so immense he almost let go. With an agonizing yell, Mizuki ripped with shard from his calf, blood spewing from the gaping hole left behind.

Mizuki panted from exertion, as he slowly stood up, though taking as much pressure off his right leg as possible. Raising his head, Mizuki's gaze once again fell on Naruto, who glanced at him like he was nothing. "Damn you…DAMN YOU, YOU FILLY MONSTER! I will not be treated like third class trash" Mizuki bellowed out, his claws tearing groves into the tree he was leaning against.

Letting go of the tree, Mizuki stumbled forward, barely managing to stay standing. But through sheer forcing of will, Mizuki forced his body forward into a berserker charge, as well as one could charge with a limp anyway. Mizuki's leg protested this, but he ignored the pain sweeping over his body, his rage blinding him to the pain. Which was unfortunate for Mizuki, had he been paying attention, he would have noticed the searing pain emanating from his chakra coils.

Sighing at Mizuki's pitiful attempt at charging him, Naruto decided to put and end to this once and for all. Dashing towards the, somewhat, charging Mizuki, Naruto ducked under a weak punch aimed at his head. Quickly unsheathing his sword, Naruto expertly sliced through Mizuki's hamstrings; causing him to fall to his knees with a yell of pain. Jumping over Mizuki's backhand, Naruto simultaneously, in the air, sheathed his sword and gathered reiatsu into his fist, which was coated in dark red energy. Finally when he felt he gathered enough, he blisted the immobile Mizuki. Clocking his glowing fist backwards, Naruto stopped about five to ten feet away from Mizuki's unprotected back. Throwing his arm forward, Naruto yelled one word that spelled the end for Mizuki.

"BALA"

And with that, he released the pent up reiatsu and fired the glowing bullet of death directly at Mizuki's spine. Mizuki only had time to blink before the Bala made contact. A massive explosion of red energy temporarily illuminated the clearing, as Mizuki yelled in agony, his entire world being replaced with pain. With his eyes wide open and blood/spittle cascading from his mouth, Mizuki toppled forward, his body spent.

Naruto calmly walked towards Mizuki's prone and defenseless body, his hands nestled in his pockets. Naruto grimaced slightly, the smell of the flesh on Mizuki's back cooking assaulting his nose. He looked over Mizuki's broken body and examined the damage done by his Bala. The smoke finally cleared from Mizuki's back, a large, slightly steaming, red scar could be seen as it encompassed a good portion of his back.

"Hey, are you dead yet Tora-Teme?" Naruto asked, kicking Mizuki in the side. To which he received a pained groan in response from Mizuki. With a sign escaping his lips, Naruto used his foot to flip Mizuki onto his back, grinning slightly at the yell that escaped from Mizuki as his back made contact with the ground. Naruto slowly unsheathed his sword, the sound of which diverted Mizuki's attention away from the pain.

Before Naruto could even consider using his sword to kill Mizuki, something…unexpected happened. Out of no where, Mizuki started screaming in pain, as steam started coming off his body, his arms and legs thrashing on the ground in agony. '_What…is THIS?_' Mizuki thought, every cell in his body screaming like they were being submerged in acid. His muscles contracted and pulsated, like a bag full of worms trying to escape. This went on for a few moments, before his body started to regress. His muscles slowly but surely started to collapse and destroy themselves. His claws and fangs shrunk down to normal human proportions. With each passing second more steam came off Mizuki, as he gradually shrunk and withered.

By the time the transformation wore off, Mizuki resembled a mummified corpse or that of an extremely old man. His skin had a purplish tint to it, wrinkles and cracks seemed to cover almost his entire body. The area around his eyes sunk slightly, giving the impression that his bloodshot eyes were bulging out his skull. The muscles around his body had all but disintegrated, leaving him nothing but skin and bones, metaphorically. His hair went from a light gray to pure white.

Mizuki could barely breathe; his body was wracked with so much agony that he could hardly stand it. Blood spewed from his mouth as he broke into a coughing fit, which stopped after a few moments. '_What…is the meaning of this? I don't understand, Orochimaru-Sama said that this was the ultimate physical jutsu, that with it I would be unstoppable. Did he betray me…no, this has to be some mistake. I have to find him and get him to fix this' _Mizuki thought to himself, as he barely raised his head in order to examine his now frail body.

"This is new! Just when I thought you couldn't weaker, you go and prove me wrong" Naruto said, his voice somewhat condescending, as he looked at the now helpless Mizuki.

Mizuki's gaze shifted from his frail form, to that of the smirking Naruto, who stood looking down at him with amusement and curiosity. "This…this is all YOUR FAULT! You're the reason I'm like this you monster, why couldn't you just lay down and die?" Mizuki ranted; his voice full of as much rage as he could muster at that point in time.

"No Mizuki, this is on you head. You did this to yourself in some pitiful pursuit of power. And for what? To kill me? To kill Iruka-sensei? I don't know whether to hate you with every fiber of by being or to simply pity you." Naruto replied in a serious tone, his voice was without a single trace of mocking or sadism. Having said his due, Naruto threw his arm forward and stabbed Mizuki right in the chest.

Mizuki gaped in horror at the blade currently lodged into his chest cavity, the cold steel blade slowly killing him. Blood poured forth from the wound, as Naruto pulled his blade out of Mizuki's chest. Mizuki quickly lifted his arms and put his hands on the wound, trying in vein to stop the bleeding.

Naruto stared at Mizuki trying to save himself, a small sneer taking place on his face. Shaking his head at Mizuki, Naruto spun on his heel, while sheathing his sword, and started walking away from the dying Mizuki. He made it about two steps before Mizuki noticed him leaving.

"Don't you walk away from me demon, were not done here" Mizuki yelled, his ego taking a heavy blow at seeing Naruto walk away from him like he was finished. Fury washed through Mizuki's body at audacity the demon had. Walking away like he had already won, as long Mizuki still drew breath he wasn't finished.

"Oh were done here, you're going to bleed soon enough, face Teme…I won, you lost" Naruto replied looking over his shoulder, as he stopped dead in his tracks. He was about to keep walking when heard Mizuki… laughing.

Indeed Mizuki was laughing, not a HA-HA kind of laugh, but more along the lines of someone losing their mind kind of laugh. Mizuki stopped laughing after a minute or two; his face had a huge insane grin on it. Only made eerier by the fact his teeth were stained red, by all of the blood that had spewed from his mouth during the duration of their brawl.

"He…he…you may beaten me…today, but they'll be others…just like me, who won't rest…until your dead and rotting. You know the village…will never accept you demon….no matter what you do. They will always hate you, just…as much…as I do. It's only a matter of…time until one of them kills you… so in the end I'll always win." Mizuki said, periodically having to take breaths or hold back vomiting bile and blood. The twisted grin on Mizuki's face never left, as he stared at Naruto while spouting off the "truth" of the matter.

Naruto, having heard enough of Mizuki flapping his lips, decided to put an end to this blow hard's speech. Turning around quickly, Naruto unsheathed his katana, while walking towards Mizuki, and with a single swipe, cut off Mizuki's head. Said decapitated head was rolling on the ground, Mizuki's face locked into a horrified expression. Blood dripped down from Naruto's katana onto the ground below.

"They can try" Naruto muttered out, his gaze locked onto Mizuki's head as if replying to his earlier rant. Exhaling out his nose, Naruto wiped the blood off his katana and Mizuki's pant leg before sheathing it once more. He was about to walk off and check on Iruka, when his body froze for a moment before he felt himself being pulled somewhere.

(Naruto's Mindscape)

"Ugh, what the hell just happened" Naruto thought aloud, as he rubbed his arching forehead for a moment before stopping. Shaking his head to clear out the cobwebs, Naruto took one look around and instantly knew where he was. Naruto walked forward down the massive corridors of his mind, before turning down a right corridor, and just like that he arrived at the Kyuubi's cage. Standing in front of the massive gate, the remaining Espada waiting for him with varying expressions. From pride to indifference, they all starred at him for a moment.

"What's up" Naruto said, lazily raising one hand in greeting. Before he could even blink, Nelliel had already caught him in one of her, what he would later call, "Hugs of Pleasant Death". Naruto was at an impasse. On one hand Nelliel was unintentionally crushing him with her hug. And on the other hand, the way she was hugging him, Naruto's face was almost nestled into her plentiful boobs. Quite the dilemma indeed.

"I'm so proud of you Naruto-kun, you beat that guy all by yourself" Nelliel shouted, completely oblivious to the fact that Naruto's face was turning red. From lack of oxygen or the close proximity to her chest, we would never know.

"Nelliel…please release Naruto-san, before he dies from oxygen depravation" Harribel said as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, wonder how Nelliel never seemed to notice she was hugging someone too hard.

Nelliel, for her part, stopped squeezing Naruto for a moment, looked at Harribel blinking in confusion before looking down at Naruto. Whose face was currently a nice shade of blue, barely staying conscious as he tried to inhale precious air. "Naruto, I am so sorry. PLEASE DON'T DIE ON ME" Nelliel worriedly screamed out, accidentally squeezing harder than she did earlier, which got a pained groan from Naruto. Nelliel eventually let go of Naruto, who fell on all fours, desperately breathing in precious oxygen.

After taking in enough oxygen to function again, and receiving numerous apologies from the green hair arrancar, Naruto was finally able to stand. "Okay now that, that's over. What do guys need?" Naruto asked his tenants, his back slumping against one of the walls of the sewer.

"We called here for two things. One, congrats on beating the overgrown housecat, though I could've beaten him a lot quicker" Grimmjow said, muttering the last part, as he pushed himself off the bars of the cage and stood right in front of Naruto. "Secondly, I don't know about fuzzy over there, but I refuse to live a freaking sewer. So brought you here, to fix this into something livable while were stuck in here." Grimmjow continued as ignored the threatening growl that Kyuubi was giving him.

Naruto looked at the other Espada, who all gave nods of confirmation to him, signifying their agreement. Quirking an eyebrow up, Naruto leaned over to the side, looking at Kyuubi straight in the eyes. "Can I actually do that?" Naruto asked which got a face palm from Kyuubi, who muttered to itself about "How a supposed genius can still be so stupid".

"**Yes… you hairless ape you can. It just requires a lot of concentration and a mental image of what you want to create. Now hurry up ningen, I've lived in this sewer for thirteen years and I've had enough of it!**" Kyuubi replied impatiently, its tolerance for the sewer that was Naruto's mindscape, having finally reached its limit.

"Alright, alright, jeez give me a minute here and I'll see what I can do" Naruto grumbled out, his eyes closed and his brow knitted in concentration. About a minute later, Naruto was engulfed by a dazzling white light, which expanded to encompass the entire room. When the light finally dimmed down into nothingness, the Espada and bijou were shocked by what they saw, to the point that Nelliel and Grimmjow's mouths dropped slightly.

What was once a dark, dank and depressing maze like sewer was now a giant luxurious compound located in a dense, beautiful forest. The compound was enormous, if estimated it would approximately be 3/4th s the size of the Hyuuga compound, though this one had a homier feel to it. The compound had huge limestone walls that surrounded the entire complex. The main door to the compound was astonishing, it was a beautiful gold color, with intricate red interiors. The door knobs were large brass lion heads, both of which held a gold ring in its mouth.

As they opened the doors, or in Kyuubi's case looked over the wall, they were greeted to huge traditional style houses. A huge main house was directly in the middle of the compound, with a dozen or so smaller buildings surrounding it.

"Not bad Gaki, not bad at all" Grimmjow said appraisingly, as he took in everything around him and frankly this place beat Hueco Mundo on even its worse day. '_Hell, anyplace is better than Hueco Mundo_' Grimmjow thought to himself.

"**I hate to break up your little sight seeing trip, but I sense someone coming this way. Listen Gaki we need to talk later, we'll call back here when you go to sleep. We have much to discuss!**" Kyuubi said, as it stretched its legs, glad to finally have some room after thirteen years of being trapped in a cramped cage. Though he could do without with giant collar around his neck, chaining him to a nearby tree, it was better than the alternative.

"Before I go, I want to say thank you. Without your help Iruka-sensei and I would be nothing more than ash in a crater. I hope one day to return the favor" Naruto said, with a rare genuine smile on his face, as his mental avatar faded away. After getting over the initial shock of being thanked by someone, the remaining Espada went off by them selves to explore their new home, or in Starrk's case to find a quiet place to nap.

(Real World: Random Clearing: Two Minutes later)

Shaking his head and blinking a few times, Naruto shook away the remnants of his trance. Quickly remembering what Kyuubi told him, Naruto grasped his katana's handle and looked everywhere for the approaching individuals. He didn't have to wait long, about thirty seconds after he returned to consciousness, numerous swirls of leaves appeared in the middle of the, now destroyed, clearing. Naruto narrowed his eyes at his, as he clenched his sword's handle harder, preparing for the worst.

After the Shunshin no Jutsu died down, Naruto able to clearly see his potential allies, or potential enemies. The individuals Kyuubi senses turn out to be a group of ANBU, all of which were looking at him, or at least it felt like they were. Before either side could make a move, the ANBU were pushed aside by a very relieved looking Iruka.

"NARUTO" Iruka yelled happily, as he ran towards his still, thankfully, breathing student with a big grin on his face. '_Thank Kami, you're alright Naruto_' Iruka thought, as he rushed forward.

"Sensei" Naruto muttered in joy, without even thinking, he jogged towards Iruka with an equally big grin on his face. In a manner of seconds, student and teacher embraced in a hug, both relieved that the other was alive.

"Iruka-sensei, you're alive" Naruto said, as he sighed with relief, unintentionally hugging harder than he intended, crushing Iruka slightly. Who grit his teeth in pain, his ribs, while not broken were still incredibly sore and this was making them worse.

"Naruto ease up on the hug, my ribs are still sore" Iruka grunted out, Naruto immediately let go of Iruka and muttered a brief apology. '_He's ready_' Iruka thought, as smiled down at Naruto, deciding to do something he had been waiting to do for a long time.

"Naruto close your eyes for a second" Iruka said calmly. Naruto looked apprehensive for a moment, but did so anyway, putting his trust in Iruka. Naruto waited for a few moments, the sound of cloth being unfurled reaching his ears before he felt a cloth being tied around his forehead. "Okay Naruto, open your eyes" Iruka said, happiness and anticipation evident in his voice.

Naruto opened his eyes, Iruka's smiling face the first thing being that he saw, though one thing seemed to be missing. His hitai-ate. '_No way…he didn't_' Naruto thought in disbelief, as he reached up to the cloth around his head and felt cold metal against his fingers. Naruto's eyes widened slightly, a conclusion already formed in his mind, one that turned out to be right. Iruka had given him, his hitai-ate.

"Congratulations Naruto, you finally graduate" Iruka said, a beaming smile on his face, his hand proudly placed on Naruto's shoulders. Iruka stopped smiling, when he immediately didn't hear Naruto cheer in celebration, or hug him. Naruto had a look of deep concentration; a million thoughts went through Naruto's mind as he slowly moved his thumb across the metal back and forth.

"Naruto, what's wrong?" Iruka asked in concern, worried why his favorite student wasn't happy, he finally graduated but why did he look torn about it.

"Nothings wrong sensei… thank you" Naruto hastily replied, reaching behind him to tighten the headband around his head. Iruka smiled at this, though was mentally pondering what was going through Naruto's head.

This, now, awkward reunion was cut short by Neko, who decided that it was time to get down to business. Nodding to her fellow ANBU, who secured the perimeter around them, Neko made her way over towards Naruto and Iruka.

Naruto seeing Neko walk up to them, slowly grasped his sword, unsure of her intentions at that moment. Neko noticed this immediately, thinking quickly she quickly brought her arms up to show that she was unarmed, at least not any that she was willing to use on him. Naruto narrowed his eyes, still not lowering his guard in the slightest, his grip on his katana increasing. Neko and Naruto stared at each other unflinchingly; at least Naruto assumed she was it was kind of hard to tell with the mask. Their stare off was cut short, by Iruka putting his hand on Naruto's shoulders, getting his attention.

"Naruto stop, you can trust her, without their help I doubt I would even be alive right now" Iruka said, his tone firm. Naruto looked deep into his eyes, trying to find any hint of apprehension or lies. Thankfully find none, Naruto let go of his sword and, with a sigh, relaxed his body somewhat.

"You do not need to worry Uzumaki-san, my men and I are fully aware of Mizuki's deception. The other ANBU are being informed as we speak, soon everyone will know that you are innocent in this matter" Neko assured our protagonist, whilst, unknown to them, surveying the damage done to the clearing with slight amazement.

Her eyes drifted every little piece of damage done to the battle field, before her gaze landed on Mizuki's headless, shriveled up corpse. "I assume you're the reason Mizuki no longer has a head?" Neko asked, subtly nodding to her fellow ANBU to seal up Mizuki's corpse. Neko's eyes roamed over what was left of Mizuki, using her limited medical knowledge she realized that Mizuki took a hell of a beating before being decapitated.

"He wasn't so tough" Naruto replied, a small, confident smirk plastered on his face, as he stared down at Mizuki's severed head.

"I see…congratulations are in order, but for now Hokage-sama has requested both of your presence right now, to get your official mission statements" Neko exclaimed as she finished sealing Mizuki's remains in a scroll, and strapping it to her belt holster.

Naruto's expression darkened considerably at this, the mere mention of the man who ruined his life, sent liquid hot anger coursing through his veins. The same man, who was too weak to prevent him from being trained into Konoha's loyal little attack dog. Unknown to Naruto, but easily visible to Neko and Iruka, he changed forms once again during his mental dilemma. Both Iruka and Neko shared a look with each other for a brief second, as if to ask "Do you know what's happening?" Naruto opened his eyes, which could be compared to a cold, empty void, and nodded to Neko. Without saying a word, Iruka and Naruto placed one hand on each of Neko's shoulders. Nodding to herself, Neko then formed a ram seal and with a muttered "Shunshin no Jutsu" they were gone.

**Author's Note:**

**Alright people here it is, the revised and rewritten version of chapter 2 I hope you like. Personally I think this is not my best work, but I'm happy with it all the same. **

**Now there are a few things I need to clear up about this chapter. Firstly I tried to make the fight more exciting; when I reread the original chapter I realized it was really repetitive. So I tried to spice things up, I made Mizuki a bit smarter than he was in cannon. I had him actually use strategy, however limited it may be. **

**A big problem some of you might have with this chapter is when Naruto is fighting Mizuki's clone platoon. Some of you might be wondering why he is dodging the clone's attacks if their simply illusions. Well, I thought of it like this. Naruto doesn't know if the real Mizuki is mixed in with the rest of the clones. Because of this, he has to treat every clone like it's the real Mizuki, which includes dodging their attacks. Even though he can handle an attack from Mizuki, no body wants to get hit in battle like that…unless you're Hidan. **

**As to why Naruto simply didn't spam some clones of his own to take down Mizuki's, well its simple. I tried writing that, but it just didn't flow well with what I had planned. I wanted to get this to you guys as soon as possible, so I decided to just move on.**

**I'm sorry, I couldn't resist that joke.**

**Before some of you call bullshit, Mizuki actually can use chakra threads. He used them in the Mizuki Strikes Back arc; I wanted to incorporate them here. If you want to know where he learned it, just say Orochimaru taught him that.**

**Well, that's it for now. Please vote in the poll, you only have a few more weeks before it's closed and the pairings are final. I might add more pairings as the story goes on, but I will no longer take requests for pairings after the poll shuts down. **


	3. Confrontations

Naruto: Konoha's Arrancar Shinobi

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach; if I did I wouldn't be poor, and I would have legions of fans outside my home.

"I'm Batman" Regular Speech

"_I'm Batman" Inner Thought_

"I'm Batman" Jutsu/ technique

"**I'm Batman" **Demonic Speech

Chapter 3: Confrontations

Last time:

Naruto's expression darkened considerably at this, the mere mention of the man who ruined his life, sent liquid hot anger coursing threw his veins. The same man, who was too weak to prevent him from being trained into Konoha's loyal little attack dog. Unknown to Naruto, but easily visible to Neko and Iruka, he changed forms once again during his mental dilemma. Both Iruka and Neko shared a look with each other for a brief second, as if to ask "Do you know what's happening?" Naruto opened his eyes, which could be compared to a cold, empty void, and nodded to Neko. Without saying a word, Iruka and Naruto placed one hand on each of Neko's shoulders. Nodding to herself, Neko then formed a ram seal and with a muttered "Shunshin no Jutsu" they were gone.

(Konoha Academy: Hokage's Office)

Sarutobi Hiruzen was many things. He was a man who had lived a long and adventurous life, during which he had accomplished many things that made him who he was. From the moment he was born, Hiruzen was praised a prodigy amongst his clan members. He, along with his teammates, had the distinct honor of having their sensei the Nidaime Hokage, Senju Tobirama. During the First Great Shinobi War, he was personally named the Sandaime Hokage by his sensei. Who sacrificed himself by fighting the Kinkaku Force alone, so that he and his team could escape with their lives.

Accepting the responsibility, Hiruzen eventually led Konoha to victory in all Three Great Shinobi Wars. He was one of very few individuals who could say that they survived all three Great Shinobi Wars. During said wars he earned his epithets as The Professor and the Shinobi no Kami (God of Shinobi). Before the Second Great Shinobi War, he received a gennin team. A team that would eventually be known throughout the Elemental Nations, thanks to Sanshōuo no Hanzō (Hanzō of the Salamander), as the Densetsu no Sannin.

In his later years, he married the love of his life Biwako and together they made two amazing children that he loved with all his heart. One of whom would give him a grandchild by the name of Konohamaru years later. When he named his successor, he thought his tenure as Hokage would finally end. However fate seemed to disagree with him on that one. Thirteen years ago the Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked the village, in the process it killed hundreds in not thousands on shinobi and civilian alike. One of whom, he found out early on, was his beautiful wife Biwako. Despite the villages best efforts, nothing they did slowed the creature down. It was only thanks to the efforts of his successor, Namikaze Minato, that defeated the beast, but at a horrible cost. He offered his soul to the Shinigami (Death God) to seal the rampaging bijou into his newborn son, Naruto.

With little to no time to grief for his dead wife, Hiruzen was thrown back into the Hokage position. Almost immediately he was called into an emergency council meeting, a meeting that he would never forget. For it was at this meeting, that he made, arguably, the biggest mistake of his Hokage tenure. The decision he made that night would forever haunt him as possibly his greatest failure, right besides not killing his wayward student Orochimaru.

It wouldn't be until five years later, that Hiruzen would see first hand the consequences of his decision. From that day onwards, Hiruzen tried desperately to correct his mistake and make Naruto's life better. It worked slightly for a couple of years, but in the end it would all be for nothing.

Yes. Sarutobi Hiruzen was many things, but at this moment he wasn't the proud father, the legendary Hokage, the professor. No, right now he was nothing but a regretful old man who had live with the consequences of what he had done.

"Hokage-sama, Neko has just arrived with Uzumaki-san and Umino-san" an Inu masked ANBU said, as he kneeled to the side of Hiruzen with his head down. "Thank you Inu, dismissed" Hiruzen replied with a sigh at the end, not even sparing a look at Inu, who nodded briefly before seemingly disappearing. '_What I wouldn't give to back and fix this'_ Hiruzen thought to himself, mentally recounting every failure he had in regard to Naruto's wellbeing.

Hiruzen slumped into his chair, before turning his chair around and observed his village intently. He observed the peaceful night life of the village, the street lamps illuminating the village, ANBU operatives making their nightly rounds. His thoughts turned to the villagers sleeping soundly, a small warmth filling his chest for a moment. His gaze shifted from that of the village itself, to that of the Hokage Monument on his left. The small smile that was on Hiruzen's face quickly morphed into a deep frown, as the warmth in his chest was replaced with a cold, emptiness in his soul.

'_Minato…I'm sorry! The village has spit on your sacrifice; even now they disgrace your legacy. This village has failed you…I…I failed you. You trusted us to protect Naruto, to treat him like the hero he is and instead they alienate and loathe him. I can only beg for you and Kushina's forgiveness in the afterlife.'_ Hiruzen thought despairingly, years of repressed guilt and regret billowing up to the surface of his mind. Forcibly tearing his gaze away, Hiruzen quickly spun his chain around, so that his back was facing the Hokage Monument. Shaking his head, Hiruzen desperately tried to banish his depressing thoughts from his head, to not much avail. Hiruzen fixed his gaze on the door to his office, waiting for Naruto to show up, knowing that this meeting was a long time in the making.

He didn't have to wait long, as out of nowhere as the door to his office was kicked down. As his door all but exploded in a shower of splinters, Hiruzen gripped an emergency kunai from under desk, preparing for the worst. His personal ANBU bodyguards were in front of his desk in less than a second, their swords drawn and ready to use. Out of the wreckage of what used to be his door, came an emotionless looking Naruto, who disregarded the ANBU pointing their swords at him, as he walked calmly towards his desk.

"Stay where you are or we will kill you" Inu said sternly as he and his fellow ANBU, had their swords mere centimeters from Naruto's neck. Naruto didn't even acknowledge Inu's threat, no, all he did was stare directly into Hiruzen's eyes. A tense silence fell over the office; no one dared break it for any reason. The atmosphere was thick with tension, so much so that you couldn't even cut it with a kunai.

The tension was finally broken by Hiruzen, who closed his eyes and lowering his head with a depressed sigh. Gathering up his courage and pushing down his regret, Hiruzen raised his head and looked at Naruto. "Hello Naruto-kun" Hiruzen said after swallowing the lump in his throat and putting away the emergency kunai. A shiver went up Hiruzen's spine as he locked eyes with Naruto once more. To him, Naruto's eyes were two sapphire voids, endless and cold like an abyss. But what truly shocked Hiruzen was the sheer amount rage that was hidden behind the cold voids.

"Sarutobi...we need to talk" Naruto replied, his tone cold and emotionless, causing Sarutobi's eyes to widen slightly at just how cold his tone was.

(Three Minutes Earlier)

The streets of Konoha were quiet; there wasn't a single person awake at that moment, aside from the ANBU patrolling the rooftops. The fireflies and moths danced about in the air, seemingly ignorant of the world around them as they flew where the wind took them. This serene atmosphere was broken, at least for a brief moment, by a whirlwind of leaves appearing, almost out of nowhere, in front of the Hokage mansion. In mere moments, the whirlwind died down into nothingness, revealing Neko, Iruka and a slightly dizzy Naruto.

"Don't worry Uzumaki-san; everyone is a little dizzy after experiencing the Shunshin no Jutsu for the first time" Neko said, a hint of amusement evident in her voice, as she looked down at the, no longer wobbling Naruto. Naruto glared at her slightly, before he shook his head and moved on. Iruka was about to comment, when he suddenly let out a pained groan as he clutched his sore ribs.

"Alright Umino-san, I let you make sure that Uzumaki-san was safe, but now your going to the hospital to rest" Neko said in a no nonsense tone, her hands firmly planted on her hips. Iruka looked ready to argue, but, what felt like, a stern glare from Neko destroyed any protest Iruka might have had.

"Naruto…team placements are in a week, I expect you to be there on time" Iruka said, turning to Naruto, who nodded in return to Iruka's carefully worded request. Iruka quickly gave Naruto a brief pat on the shoulder, before nodding to Neko that he was ready.

"Uzumaki-san, I have to take Umino-san to the hospital, go on ahead and Hokage-sama your report, I'll be there shortly" Neko said, before she placed her hand on Iruka's shoulder and with a quick hand sign, they disappeared.

Naruto stared at the spot where they disappeared from, for a second before turning the opposite way and made his way up the stairs of the Hokage Mansion. '_Sarutobi_' Naruto thought disdainfully, with each step he took, he only got angrier and angrier. Naruto's mind constantly replayed the memories his dobe self had of Sarutobi, every laugh, every smile, and every single minute he spent with the old bastard. Sarutobi had been lying to his face, for all those years, mocking him by pretending to be grandfatherly after what he had done. With each memory Naruto's breathing and heart rate only got faster and faster as rage poured threw his veins. His heart seemed to be beating a hundred miles an hour, like an Akamichi running a 10 mile marathon. By the time Naruto reached the top of the stairs, he was seething, though it was hard to tell seeing as how his face barely showed any hint of emotion.

Naruto stopped momentarily when he saw the door to Sarutobi's office, his face a picture perfect mask of deep concentration. Naruto stared at the door for several moments, before closing his eyes and blocked the world out. The world around him was nothing but a soothing blackness, as he basked in the somehow comforting void. Naruto took deep breaths in and out, as he listened to his incredibly fast beating heart. The constant beating filled his ears, until it was the only sound he could hear. With each passing breath, his heart beat began to lower and lower. The overpowering fury that temporarily overtook him was slowly dimming, not going away but not overtaking his senses. When his heart beat returned to normal, Naruto exhaled one last time as his slowly opened his eyes, the black void fading away until he was back in the real world.

Narrowing his eyes, Naruto channeled the rage that was still coursing threw his veins, and decided to take a page out of Grimmjow's book. Not wasting anytime, Naruto lifted his leg to about his waist and thrust his leg forward towards the wooden obstacle. The moment Naruto's foot made contact with the door, it all but exploded outwards into Sarutobi's office, putting up as little resistance as a toothpick. As splinters and chunks of the, now demolished, door flew into the office like shrapnel, Naruto calmly strode in.

He briefly looked at the ANBU operatives guarding Sarutobi, all of whom were pointing their swords at his throat, before turning his gaze back to the man who had ruined his life. With each step Naruto took, the harder it was for him to squash the urge to behead Sarutobi then and there.

"Stay where you are or we will kill you" an Inu masked ANBU with black hair demanded angrily, Naruto had to resist the urge to roll his eyes or scoff at the fool. Ignoring the dog masked ANBU, Naruto stopped when he finally was standing directly in front of Sarutobi's desk. Naruto didn't even acknowledge the blades poised to pierce is neck and kill him should he even blink the wrong way. No, instead he ignored the ANBU entirely and focused entirely on Sarutobi, whom he had locked eyes with in a stare down.

'_Pitiful_' Naruto thought to himself, as he maintained eye contact with the bastard who called himself a Kage. Ha, to Naruto, at that moment, Sarutobi didn't look like the wise and powerful Sandaime Hokage but instead a pathetic old man who had given up a long time ago. Finally after what felt like hours of intense staring, Sarutobi lowered his head and released a depressed sigh from his mouth.

"Sarutobi…we need to talk" Naruto replied curtly, somewhat taking pleasure in the shocked expression on Sarutobi's face.

(Present Time)

"Naruto-kun…what…what happened to you? Why do you look like this?" Hiruzen asked almost hesitantly, as he subtly signaled his ANBU bodyguards to stand down. Begrudgingly, they nodded their heads and disappeared back into the shadows, ready to defend their leader at a moment's notice. Hiruzen sat there intently watching Naruto, who hadn't answered his question, opting to simply glare at him.

"…why?" Naruto growled out, completely ignoring Hiruzen's question, as he lowered his head slightly, his bangs casting a shadow over his eyes. Naruto clenched his fists tightly, his body starting to shake from the anger that was building again. Unknown to him, his hair was starting to regain its normal radiant color, as well as his skin becoming tanner by the second.

"Na-Naruto, I…" Hiruzen sputtered out, a look of shock adorning his face as he observed Naruto changing before his eyes.

"WHY DID YOU BETRAY ME?" Naruto yelled in Hiruzen's face, his body leaned forward, his own face a mask of fury that no one had ever seen. Naruto's hands slammed onto the face of the desk with tremendous force, so much so that the legs almost buckled under the strain. Cracks spread from where Naruto's hands impacted the desk, when Naruto removed his hands later, it would reveal that his hands left indentions it the wood.

Instantly the ANBU that were hidden in the office sprang into action, their swords poised to kill Naruto. Unlike last time, Naruto did acknowledge the ANBU's swords tickling his throat. Taking several deep breaths threw his nose; Naruto removed his hands from Hiruzen's desk and leaned back into an upright position. Though he was still glaring at Hiruzen with every bit of hate he could muster. Hiruzen could only gape in shock, having never seen such fury ever come from one person outside of the battlefield.

"Naruto…I'm sorry. I am so sorry for what I did to you; you have every right to hate me. But you have to understand, I was under so much pressure that night with everything that was going on. From Minato's death to all of the causality reports, I had no time to clear my head. When they called me into the council meeting, it was chaos; one side calling for your death, the other pinning to adopt or train you and keep you safe.

Neither side was willing to budge in the slightest; I couldn't keep them under control. When a third option was presented I immediately took it without thinking. The Civilian Council stood behind it, and even some of the Shinobi Council accepted it, a good portion argued against it. The majority won out, and…you know the rest. I didn't want to seal your memories, but the elders and the Civilian Council believed you were too unstable at the time to be trusted with that much power. Especially after the incident with your sensei, they feared you were a ticking time bomb. Naruto, I know I don't deserve it, but please forgive this foolish old man." Hiruzen said pleadingly, praying to Kami that Naruto would some how forgive him after everything that has happened. Deep in his heart he knew that he didn't deserve forgiveness, but he tried no the less.

Naruto stared at Hiruzen for a brief moment, his face torn between anger and astonishment. "You're…sorry?" Naruto growled out between his grit teeth, as he started to, unknowingly, release a massive amount of KI (Killing Intent) and spiritual pressure, a mixture he would later in life dub KP (Killing Pressure). Almost immediately, Hiruzen and his ANBU body guards felt an ungodly amount of pressure on their bodies.

"You had me be raised as a weapon, trained day in and day out to be the best I could be. Then a couple years later, you have my abilities sealed, effectively leaving me defenseless against the idiotic sheep that call themselves villagers. All because a group of whiny, power hungry CIVILIANS thought I was unstable. You essentially threw me to the wolves of the village, defenseless as they beat and abused me for years. While you yourself did nothing, the most you did was give them a slap on the wrist and say "NO", only for them go back and do it again. After everything you've done to me, all you can say is you're sorry?" Naruto yelled out in outrage, the pressure in the room increasing two fold.

The ANBU holding that were their blades to Naruto's neck, started buckling under the pressure, as they were barely able to hold their swords. Their knees were shaking, threatening to give out, as they struggled to remain upright. Their entire bodies shook from exertion, every muscle in their bodies was being used to keep them upright. '_What is this…pressure?'_ Inu thought to himself, as he grinded his teeth behind his porcelain mask.

In a flash of sliver, Naruto's katana was about a couple of centimeters from Hiruzen's throat. Hiruzen, to his credit, didn't show any fear or nervousness as Naruto's blade tickled his throat. Hiruzen glanced at the blade poised to slit his throat, and then back at Naruto who glared at him with such fiery rage.

"Where is the real Sarutobi Hiruzen?" Naruto asked angrily, as he unconsciously increased the pressure in the office. Naruto clutched his katana's handle until his knuckles turned white, as he moved his blade closer to Hiruzen's neck. The ANBU around them could no longer handle immense pressure on their bodies, with a grunt they all fell to one knee as their swords clattered uselessly to the ground.

"Wha-…what are you talking about Naruto-kun? I'm right here" Hiruzen replied, a look of utter confusion on his face, careful not to move too much, lest he cut himself on Naruto's blade.

"Bullshit! There is no way in hell you are the real Sarutobi Hiruzen, I refuse to accept that someone as pathetic as you could be the Shinobi no Kami. Sarutobi Hiruzen is supposed to be the pinnacle of what a shinobi should be, what they should strive to be. I don't see that in you, all I see is a pathetic old man trying to deny his failures. Like I said! Where. Is. Sarutobi. Hiruzen?" Naruto yelled, as he looked deep into Hiruzen's eyes, as if he was trying look into his soul trying to find the answer. This went of for a few moments, before Naruto removed his blade from Hiruzen's throat and sheathed it with a look of disgust on his face. Taking a deep breath, Naruto stopped exuding KP in the office, getting relieved sighs from everyone but him. The ANBU immediately grabbed their blades from the floor, their blades pointed once more towards Naruto.

Naruto sighed to himself, shaking his head in both anger and disappointment at what Sarutobi had become. Naruto spun on his heel, as he tried to make his way out of Hiruzen's office, only to be blocked by an irate Inu.

"Put your weapon down on the ground and your hands behind your head" Inu growled out, furious that he was helpless to protect his leader and that he, and his team, were taken out by Naruto who didn't even lift a finger. Naruto just narrowed his eyes at this, his hand grasping his katana, ready to fight.

"Inu stand down" Hiruzen said, surprising everyone in the office at his command, none more so than Inu. Hiruzen's face was a mix of exhausted and defeat, but his tone, while tired, held a good amount of force behind it.

"Hokage-sama you can't be serious! He's threatened your life twice now, and you want us to let him go" Inu sputtered out, completely flabbergasted by Hiruzen's order as it went against every rational thing ANBU were taught. '_This can't be happening_' Inu thought in disbelief, as he saw no sign in Hiruzen's face say otherwise. With an enormous amount of hesitation, Inu gradually lowered his sword, his fellow ANBU doing the same, as they moved out of Naruto's way.

Naruto didn't even spare Hiruzen a glance backwards; he simply walked forward towards the broken remnants of the door. However, before he could cross the threshold out of the office, Naruto stopped in his track when he heard Hiruzen asking him to wait.

"Naruto-kun wait a moment…there's something I need to know. If you hate the village so much, then why did you accept Iruka's hitai-ate knowing fully what it meant?" Hiruzen asked curiously, as he looked at both Naruto and the hitai-ate current wrapped around his head, obscuring his forehead from view.

Naruto lowered his head for a moment, and unseen to Hiruzen, had a look of deep concentration as he tried to rationalize it himself. Naruto reached behind his head and quickly untied his hitai-ate, allowing his bangs to once again cover his eyes slightly. Naruto stared at the headband currently grasped firmly in his hand, a plethora of thoughts and feelings flying around in his head. Naruto observed his reflection in the metal headband; as if it held the answers he was looking for. After about a minute of doing this, Naruto closed his eyes, his face scrunched up in thought. Opening his eyes moments later, Naruto's expression shifted from that of intense concentration to that of steely determination.

"I accepted his hitai-ate for one simple reason Sarutobi. When Iruka gave me his headband, he gave something far more valuable. He gave me his trust, something you and the councils apparently didn't! He acknowledged that I was an adult, worthy of defending Konoha, no matter how much pain it has caused me. I'll be honest here Sarutobi, I don't hate this village, the principles it was founded on were admirable, naïve, but admirable. No, I hate the corrupt and arrogant bastards that make up a significant portion of the population. It's only because of Iruka and a few other good people in the village that I don't leave this hellhole" Naruto said as he looked behind him at the, now, shocked Sarutobi, who took all this in with shame. Grabbing both ends of his headband, Naruto quickly retied to his head with a sharp tug.

Naruto was about to leave once more, his foot already halfway through the doorway, when he stopped and addressed Hiruzen one last time. "Let me be abundantly clear Sarutobi, while I may protect this village I will not be the villager's punching bag any longer. If they try to attack me, I will not hesitate in the slightest to cut down in an instant. Knowing these bastards like I do, they WILL try to attack me; it's only a matter of time."

"Make no mistake, there will be blood and it will be the blood of the ignorant and the corrupt. It will flow like a river through this village, washing away the trash that infests Konoha. This is my only warning Sarutobi, get this village under control or I will" Naruto said darkly, as he grasped his katana firmly in his hand. With that said and done, Naruto walked forward, stepping over the chunks of the destroyed door, the sound of wood crunching accompanied every step Naruto took until he crossed the doorway.

Hiruzen slumped back into his chair, a tired and depressed sigh escaping his lips as Naruto's words throughout the right echoed in his head. '_I'm getting too old for this…Naruto I will make up for my past mistakes'_ Hiruzen thought to himself, feeling all sixty nine years of his long life piling up on him. His inner monologue/moping was put on hold by the arrival of Neko, who appeared in the middle of the office in a puff of smoke.

"Sorry I'm late Hokage-sama, I had to take Umino-san to the hospital due to his injuries" Neko said her head down, as he lowered herself onto one knee with one hand on the ground and the other grasping his bent knee.

However, when she didn't hear Hokage-sama respond, she looked up from her place on the floor. Looking around the office she found a…unusual sight, a depressed Hokage, and irate Inu and fragments of a destroyed door. Seeing all this, Neko said, quite possibly the biggest understatement of the century "Did I miss something?"

(The Next Day: Konoha Academy-Administration Office)

"This is…interesting" Hiruzen muttered out to himself, as he glanced over three pages that made up Naruto's shinobi profile. Each one however, had a different picture on it of Naruto on it. The first one of them had a slightly smirking Naruto on it that was flipping off the camera. The second featured an emotionless looking Naruto and the last one was an extreme close up of Naru smiling and holding up a peace sign. Hiruzen rubbed his head at this development, feeling a small headache forming as he tried to come up with some explanation for Naruto's transformations.

"Hm, you need to get a better photographer Sarutobi, it took almost an hour and a half just to get my picture taken. When I ever I tried sitting down for a picture, he would ask if I was fucking with him. Demented old bastard, I still don't know what the hell he's talking about!" Naruto said somewhat agitated, muttering the last part to himself, as he leaned back into his chair while glaring slightly at Hiruzen the entire time. Naruto closed his eyes momentarily, as he rubbed them slightly to alleviate the small ache that came from them, having not had the most restful of nights. As evidenced by the small, dark circles under his eyes and a yawn escaping his mouth.

"Yes, I recall Genzo mentioning something like that; however you'll have to retake the picture Naruto. We cannot have something this vulgar on your shinobi registration" Hiruzen replied, as he took a long drag from his pipe while showing Naruto the first photo, recalling Genzo's…colorful complaints concerning Naruto. According to Genzo, almost every time he attempted to take Naruto's photo, he would change forms at random. Hell, when he changed into Naru, it took Genzo about an hour to keep him still long enough to even get a picture. By the time he was done taking Naruto's pictures, Genzo was ready rip his remaining hair out of his balding head and throttle him.

"There is no way in hell I'm taking that picture again Sarutobi, I wasted enough time, that I could have been using to train by the way, on that stupid picture" Naruto growled out, as he stared Sarutobi dead in the eye, who matched his stare after a moment of hesitation. Naruto was about to argue with Sarutobi some more, when a devious idea popped into his head. '_Oh yes, that will do nicely. Who would have thought that my dobe self would ever contribute something of value' _Naruto thought to himself, as a smirk made its way onto his face, a smirk that put Hiruzen on edge.

"Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy Technique)" (1) Naruto said quietly, before he was engulfed briefly in a cloud of smoke. When the smoke started to dissipate, instead of the white clad shinobi he was talking to, Hiruzen was greeted to a much better sight. In Naruto's place was a beautiful young woman…who just happened to be nude. She was stunning; she had long, spiky blonde hair tied into two pigtails atop of her head. She had deep, seductive, yet somehow innocent, blue eyes, a cute button nose and a small mouth, all framed by her heart shaped face. She had a perfect hourglass figure, accentuated by a thin waist and big breasts, though he could only speculate seeing as how mists of smoke obscured her best features. And plastered on her cheeks were Naruto's whisker marks; however Hiruzen wasn't paying attention to those. No, his attention was drawn downwards.

"You wouldn't make me retake that silly old picture, would you Sarutobi" 'Naruko' said mischievously, with a hint of sexiness, as she winked 'her' eye at him with a small giggle.

Hiruzen looked on, his face expressionless for a brief moment as he blinked a couple times as if to see if his eyes were playing tricks on him. After about 10 seconds of staring at 'Naruko', blood erupted from Hiruzen's nose. The force of his nosebleed threw him backwards onto the floor, where he temporally lost consciousness.

'_Crude, slightly sexist, and highly effectual, overall not bad'_ Naruto thought to himself as he transformed back into his normal appearance. Before he could take any pride in taking down a Kage in one move, Naruto felt an enormous amount of pain coming from his forehead.

'_Naruto…you will not be using that jutsu ever again, do I make myself clear?_' a stern voice echoed in his head, one that Naruto was instantly familiar with.

'_Harribel…is that you?' _Naruto asked mentally, as his pain was reduced slightly, allowing him to think clearly.

'_Yes it is, but that's not the point. You are forbidden from using that technique ever again, it is unbecoming of our vessel to use such perverted techniques. If I catch you using that move again…there will be consequences. Do I make myself clear?' _Harribel lectured sternly, as if daring him from talking back to her, so much so that he could practically see her glare.

'_Alright, alright …I won't use that technique ever again' _Naruto said in pain/fear, having enough wisdom not to argue with a woman who could crush you with no effort on her part. Feeling the pressure/pain fade from his forehead, Naruto took a sigh of relief at having prevented from feeling more of Harribel's wrath.

Despite getting a lecture from of his tenants in his head, Naruto smirked to himself as he looked at the unconscious and slightly twitching Sarutobi. However, Naruto's fun had to come to an end, seeing as how Hiruzen started stirring before groggily opening his eyes. After cleaning himself off, Hiruzen once again sat upright in his chair as he glanced at the slightly, smug Naruto, who just smirked at him.

"So that was your patented Oiroke no Jutsu, very tricky…too tricky, I'm going to have list that as an S-rank forbidden jutsu" Hiruzen muttered out, as he cleaned the remained of the blood off his face. "As I was saying Naruto, I cannot accept this picture of you, it's much too vulgar. This photo is supposed to help out forces identify you, and if I didn't know who you were, just going by this picture, I would think you were nothing more than an arrogant punk" Hiruzen said, surprisingly forceful, which actually shocked Naruto a bit.

'_Hm, he's not as spineless as I thought he was! Maybe there is hope for you yet Sarutobi'_ Naruto thought to himself, his respect for Hiruzen going up by the barest minimum, filing the development away for later Naruto decided he had spent enough time in the office for one day. "Fine I'll retake the fucking picture, now are we done here? I have training I have to get back to" Naruto said impatiently, as he sat upright, his hands now firmly planted in is jacket pockets. Before Hiruzen could reply, the door of the office was thrown open by…a small child.

(Moments Earlier)

Unknown to occupants of the room, a shadowed figure slid the door open slightly, just enough to peer into the room, watching intently for the time to strike. '_Wait for it, wait for it'_ the figure thought to himself, his grip subconsciously tightening around the shuriken in his hand.

'_This is it, I'm gonna defeat him this time_' the figure thought to himself, as he recalled his numerous failed attempts to defeat his greatest foe. Time after time, he failed to take out his target, but not this time. Oh no, this time he was going do to it, he was going to kill his target and finally realize his dream. Pumping himself up, the figure took several quick breaths. With his adrenaline high and his opportunity presented, the figure threw the door open.

(Present Time)

"Jii-san, I challenge you! I'm going to defeat you and become the Godaime Hokage! "the small boy yelled, as he ran towards Hiruzen, one or two shuriken firmly grasped in his right hand. The small boy held his glare firmly on Hiruzen, his face a mask of pure determination. His muscles, what little he had, were tensed and ready to strike at a moments notice. '_Almost there'_ the young boy thought to himself, each footstep getting him closer and closer to his goal. The sound of his breathing and that of his sandals against the hard wood floor filled his ears.

However, just as he was about to throw the shuriken in his hand, just as he was about to finally accomplish his goal…he tripped. He tripped hard, if the loud smack of flesh against wood, and the child in question clutching his face while moaning in pain were any indication.

'_Is this gaki serious?'_ Naruto thought to himself, an indigent look made its way onto Naruto's face as he watched the little boy writhe in pain on the ground.

'_Great, now my grandson has been added into the mix. As if my headache wasn't bad enough already_' Hiruzen thought, as he too watched as his poor, foolish grandson writhe on the floor. Hiruzen briefly looked up when he heard footsteps running down the hall, only for it to be his grandson's tutor, Ebisu. Who, gaped in shock at seeing the small child lying on the ground clutching his face.

"Ow, something tripped me" the small boy whined as he rubbed his aching forehead, while looking around for the object that he tripped over.

"Are you okay Honorable-Grandson? And by the way, there is nothing in this room that you could have tripped on, it's relatively flat" Ebisu said frantically at first then with a more subdued and natural tone.

'_Who is this kid'_ Naruto thought to himself, before his features involuntarily changed into that of his emotionless form. His eyes darkened, his hair skin paled and his hair lost its luster and fell downwards.

'_That…that boy, the Kyuubi…of course, after all he's the lowest form of scum' _Ebisu thought to himself with a smirk, as he finally took notice of Naruto's prescience in the room, thanks to following the small child's gaze.

"You, you're the one who tripped me aren't you" the small child yelled at Naruto, while pointing his finger at Naruto's face. For the first time since the child entered the room, Naruto finally got a good look at the rude little bastard.

From what he could gather, he was about eight or nine year's old, standing at about 4'1". He had short spiky hair, which was obscured by a hideous grey helmet with an orange frowny face on the right hand side and a red circle on the left, leaving a small hole for his hair to stick out. He had black eyes, and from what he could see when he yelled at him, a small chip in one of his teeth. He was wearing yellow t-shirt with a large red Konoha symbol in the middle of it. He wore grey shorts and adorning his feet were blue shinobi sandals. The thing that made him stick out though, was the ridiculously long blue scarf around his neck, which almost reached the ground.

"Hm, baka…how could have I possibly tripped you? I was five feet away from you when you fell flat your face. No, you tripped over your own two feet like a brain dead mongrel" Naruto said coldly, as he gripped the child's scarf tightly in his hand while standing up, forcing him to look Naruto dead in the eyes. Said child, glared at Naruto the best he could, his teeth clenched, though he did wither slightly under Naruto's intense, cold gaze.

"Hey, take your filthy hands off the Honorable Grandson this instant. Don't you know who he is, he is the grandson of our honorable Sandaime Hokage" Ebisu yelled angrily, getting Naruto's attention, who still had a firm grasp on the child's scarf.

This also allowed Naruto a good look at the smug looking prick. He was a somewhat, skinny man standing at about 5'9". He wore a pair of dark, circular sunglasses which completely obscured his eyes from view. On his head, he wore his hitai-ate like a bandana, only allowing a few strands of his black hair to be seen. He wore the standard Konoha jonin uniform, only without the signature flak jacket.

If Naruto was shocked by the revelation, he didn't show it at all, instead he kept the same expressionless stare as he looked from Ebisu to the struggling child he was holding.

'_That stopped him…he's just like everyone else. Now that he knows who I am, he won't dare lay a finger on me_' the child thought to himself, as he weakly tried to match Naruto's cold stare. "What's the matter tough guy? I thought you were going punch me, huh, or did you chicken out because the Sandaime Hokage is my Jii-chan" the child taunted, a small amount of arrogance filling his tone as he glared at Naruto.

"Arrogant child…I don't care if Sarutobi was your Obaa-san, I will not be talked down to by some pathetic wretch" Naruto said coldly, before punching the brat on the head as softly as he could, which was still pretty hard in comparison to a normal person.

'_This guy…he's different from the others' _the child thought to himself, as he fell towards to ground face first. Finally he hit the ground and before he knew it, he was out like a light as he slipped into unconsciousness.

"This is not looking good" Hiruzen muttered to himself, as he closed his eyes, trying to prevent his headache from growing, almost completely ignoring the gaping Ebisu.

"I'm done here Sarutobi, I'll retake the picture later, but right now I'm going back to training" Naruto exclaimed before stepping over the unconscious child and walking out the door, not even waiting for Hiruzen to respond.

(10 Minutes Later: Naruto's Location)

'_Does that little bastard really think he's being stealthy? Heh probably came to make me apologize or something stupid like that' _Naruto thought to himself, having transformed once again, with his hands firmly placed in his pockets, seemingly ignoring the small child trying, and failing to stealthily stalk him. '_This kid is getting on my nerves'_ Naruto thought to himself, as he stopped dead in his tracks in the middle of the street and turned around to face his wannabe stalker. Who, at seeing Naruto turn around, wrapped a sheet around his body, attempting to use the Kakuremino no Jutsu (Cloak of Invisibility Technique), trying to make it look like a large rock.

'_You have got to be kidding me' _Naruto thought to himself in disbelief, as he observed possibly to worst attempt at stealth he had ever seen. Not only did the 'rock' look totally out of place on the flat rocky road, but the gaki's feet were completely visible. Resisting the urge to roll his eyes and rip off the kid's 'disguise', Naruto simply shook his head and walked on.

'_He's getting away' _The child thought, as he practically tore the sheet covering him, as he 'stealthily' chased after Naruto. He took great care into making sure each step was as quiet as possible, as to not alert his target. With his scarf billowing behind him, the small child jogged slightly about ten feet away from the seemingly ignorant Naruto.

'_Alright…enough is enough'_ Naruto thought to himself, having gotten sick of being stalked by a little kid. "I know your stalking me you little bastard, so quit following me" Naruto exclaimed angrily, as he turned around to face the brat stalking him, who tied to blend in with the fence around him by using another Kakuremino no Jutsu. Only for him to be holding the sheet the wrong way, allowing him to be easily seen with anyone with half a brain cell.

"That disguise is so obvious it's pitiful" Naruto said with an annoyed edge to his voice, at seeing that the little brat was still holding up the sheet, as if he wasn't holding it the wrong way.

This went on for a few more seconds before Naruto could hear muffled laughing coming from underneath the sheet. "So, you saw through my disguise, huh? I guess the rumors about you are true, you're pretty good. Though you're taller than what people said you would be. But that doesn't matter; from now on I'll be your apprentice and you'll be my sensei" the small boy said happily and full of confidence after he removed the sheet from his body.

"…What?" Naruto said in disbelief and slight anger, at the mere implication that this brat could force him to teach the little bastard.

"And after that you gotta teach me the Oiroke no Jutsu thing that you used to beat Hokage-jiji!" the boy yelled excitably, his mind instantly going threw numerous fantasies of him beating his Jii-san with just one move and being proclaimed as the next Hokage.

"Stop right there kid, let me make two things perfectly clear to you. Firstly, you are not, nor will you ever be, my apprentice, I refuse to teach some spoiled little brat like yourself. Secondly, even if I did accept you as my apprentice, and that is a big if, there is no way I am ever teaching anybody the Oiroke no Jutsu. It is a completely insulting, although effective, technique that I will never be using again. Hell, even I'm still trying to figure out what possessed me to use that technique in the first place. Now leave me alone kid!" Naruto growled out to the small child, who looked more and more upset/indigent as he went. Just as he was about to walk off and resume his long delayed training for that day, he felt something suddenly attach itself to his leg.

"Please Naruto-Bosu (Boss), teach me your ways. PLEASE, please, please, please" the boy cried in desperation, as he clutched Naruto's leg by wrapping his arms and legs around the limb itself. This of course got the attention villagers around them, who whispered and talked amongst themselves about how the "demon" was harassing the Honorable Grandson. Deciding to ignore the ignorant sheep that inhabited the village, Naruto continued on forward, the small child still pleading while clutching his leg. This went on for about seven minutes before Naruto stopped dead in his tracks and sighed.

"Gaki if I teach you something, will you leave me alone?" Naruto said in a tired tone, finally giving in and 'biting the bullet' so to speak. '_I'm going to regret this decision in the future'_ Naruto thought to himself, as he rubbed the bridge of his nose, knowing that this was bite him in the ass later.

"You will…thank you, thank you thank you" the child said gleefully, as he finally let go of Naruto's leg only to start jumping with joy. '_This is it, my first step towards becoming the Godaime Hokage' _the boy mentally cheered, a huge grin making its way onto his face, one that only seemed to get bigger.

"Just shut up and follow me, I want to get this over with" Naruto muttered irritably, before he grabbed the back of the kid's shirt and push him forwards. After a few minutes of walking, the kid walking by his side could no longer hold his tongue.

"Hey Bosu, what' a gonna teach me? Oh, are you going to teach how to breathe fire? Walk on walls? Become invisible? Common tell me…PLEASE" the boy cried desperately, itching to get started with his new training.

"Tell me something kid, what'd you know about the Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Technique)?" Naruto replied, getting a confused, yet disappointed look from the kid by his side.

(Meanwhile: With Ebisu)

"Naruto…what has that monster done with the Honorable Grandson? What is his dastardly plan? Where have they gone? Why can't I find them? I am an elite jonin, the highest level of shinobi as well as an elite trainer of future Hokages. Any parasitic vermin that dares latch themselves onto my ward…with be squashed" Ebisu muttered to himself angrily, as he crotched on the roof of a tall building, searching high and low for any sight of his missing ward. And with a simple use of his smokeless or leafless Shunshin, he was gone.

(45 Minutes Later: Random Training Ground: Naruto's Location)

"Answer me this, why do you fixate on defeating Sarutobi so much?" Naruto asked in a dull monotone, once again changing into his emotionless form, as he casually took a sip from a recently acquired soda. This got a shocked reaction of the boy, having never expected his 'Bosu' to ask him that,

"My Jii-chan named me Konohamaru after the old name of the village, so everyone should remember my name easier. But nobody calls me by my real name, not one person in the entire village. That's because when they look at me, they don't really see me but as the Honorable Grandson of the Sandaime Hokage. Nobody knows who I am!" Konohamaru replied sadly, a mental image of his grandfather overshadowing him.

"I can stand it anymore, it's like I'm invisible to them…like I don't even exist. I hate it so much, that's why I have to become the Hokage now, that way people know who I am" Konohamaru continued angrily, as he clutched his fists tightly, wishing to Kami that people would just call him by his name.

Naruto starred at Konohamaru for a brief time, unintentionally having flashbacks to that of his dobe self's proclamations of becoming Hokage and that of his sensei's teachings.

"That is one the most idiotic things I have ever heard" Naruto said coldly as he looked at the ground, completely ignoring the shocked/indigent look on Konohamaru's face. "Do you really expect people accept a little punk you as their Hokage? You can't become a Kage in a day or two, it's impossible and foolish to think so" Naruto continued before he was interrupted by Konohamaru yelling "WHAT".

"You keep yelling about becoming the Godaime Hokage and yet you know nothing about what it really means to be a Kage. To be Hokage means to have to train yourself for years on end, practicing everything you know to perfection, until you are smarter, stronger and faster than anyone else. A Hokage has to be greatest warrior in their village, to ensure that they can protect the people care about. You'll have to face countless enemies who want nothing more than your head a pike, just for the hell of it. You will be forced to endure personal pain and situations that would that would break a weaker man, and still find the strength to keep going" Naruto said completely seriously, looking Konohamaru dead in the eye, hoping to truly emphasize how serious he was. Konohamaru gulped at this revelation, not knowing how tough the road he was on truly was.

Before Konohamaru could respond to Naruto's insight into the harsh reality of becoming Hokage they were interrupted by the untimely arrival of Ebisu. "I finally found you two!" Ebisu said loudly, getting the attention of Naruto and Konohamaru, who stood up and turned around to face him.

'_The Kyuubi'_ Ebisu thought bitterly, as he glared as hard as he could at Naruto from behind his circular shades.

'_So…he is another member of the ignorant sheep that invest the village'_ Naruto though to himself as he felt Ebisu's glare, as well as KI, on him. Naruto had to resist the urge to put a Bala through Ebisu's head, the moment he felt the KI on him.

"So Honorable Grandson, are you ready to put this farce to rest and go home?" Ebisu asked condescendingly, as jumped down from a tall branch onto the ground below before walking towards Konohamaru.

"No way, I'm finally learning useful stuff to beat Jii-chan and take his title of Hokage. Now don't get in my way" Konohamaru yelled back in response, his fists clutched together and a look of irritation on his face.

"Please, a Hokage isn't just an incredible fighter; he must know finesse, honor, wisdom, and know at least a thousand jutsu. You don't even know one single jutsu" Ebisu replied somewhat mockingly towards the end, cementing Naruto perception of his as a jackass.

"HENGE" Konohamaru yelled out, after he grit his teeth momentarily at hearing Ebisu talk down at him, before he was enveloped in a white cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared, both Ebisu and, a lesser extent Naruto gaped at what they saw.

In place of Konohamaru was a beautiful brunette woman standing at about 5'8" in height. She wore an incredibly form fitting blue kimono that accentuated her curves in the right places. It also exposed an incredible amount of cleavage of her impressive breasts. "Hi there, do you like my technique?" the brunette asked somewhat sexily, as she winked at Ebisu before disappearing in place of Konohamaru. "Hey, he isn't defeated" Konohamaru whined pitifully at seeing Ebisu still conscious, let alone standing.

'_He took what I taught him about the __Henge no Jutsu__ and twisted it into a watered down version of the __Oiroke no Jutsu (2).__ I don't whether to be furious or proud'_ Naruto thought to himself, mentally torn between hitting the brat on the head or patting him on the shoulder.

Wha…WHAT KIND OF SCANDALOUS TECHNIQUE IS THAT! Such a vulgar technique will never influence, let alone defeat me, I am far above it" Ebisu yelled out in shock/disbelief at seeing the Honorable Grandson use such…filth. He quickly snapped out of his stupor, before he walked toward Konohamaru, subconsciously pushing up his glasses with his middle finger.

"Honorable Grandson stop this foolishness immediately" Ebisu cried out as he desperately pulled on Konohamaru's scarf in an effort to make him move. "Naruto is turning you into a pathetic delinquent like him. Only my special training can I put you on the fast track to becoming a Hokage" Ebisu continued, as he pulled harder on Konohamaru's scarf, only for him to dig his feet into the ground and stand firm.

"Leave me alone" Konohamaru yelled in defiance, trying desperately to escape Ebisu's grasp. A loud of cry of Bala interrupted their struggle, before the tree about ten feet away from Ebisu exploded into a flurry of splinters. Ebisu let go Konohamaru's scarf out of shock, as he and Konohamaru gaped at the now destroyed tree before turning to face Naruto.

"I'm only going to say this once you arrogant piece of trash…leave NOW" Naruto said coldly, as his still steaming fist was held in front of his face as it slowly was surrounded by a reddish aura.

"Whoa…that was unreal" Konohamaru gapped in amazement, completely astounded that Naruto could perform such a move.

"Hm, I'm not impressed. I'm a jonin after all, an elite shinobi warrior, not some pathetic lightweight like Mizuki. Watch how a real shinobi deals with an upstart" Ebisu said confidently, as he quickly shook off any amount of surprise at what Naruto had done.

(Meanwhile: Konoha Academy: Hokage's Office)

'_This is either end very well or very poorly'_ Hiruzen thought to himself as he observed Naruto and the others using his crystal ball.

(Back with Naruto)

Naruto clenched his fists as he saw Ebisu walk towards him, a smug smile on his face as if he had already won. '_I'm going to enjoy beating the smug look off his face, probably more than I should'_ Naruto thought to himself, as he grasped his katana firmly, ready to cut down Ebisu if had to.

"Ready" Ebisu said snidely, while crossing his arms in front of him with his index and middle fingers extended, ready to perform a jutsu in a split second. '_It's about time someone put this trash in his place'_ Ebisu thought to himself, ready to beat Naruto into the ground and prove to the Honorable Grandson that his way was right.

The two combatants glared at each other, both unwilling to drop their gaze lest it be considered a defeat. Their bodies were tensed, ready to react in a second to anything the other might do. Time seemed to crawl to a stop for Naruto and Ebisu, as they waited for the other to make to slightest gesture, so they could attack. However, just as Naruto was about to initiate his attack on Ebisu, he was enveloped by a large cloud of orange smoke.

"What manner of trickery is this?" Ebisu said, his eyes watching the smoke cloud intensely, waiting for Naruto to make his move. When the smoke cleared Ebisu gapped at what he saw, instead of an emotionless Naruto staring him down, he was greeted by a happy looking Naru.

"Hi" Naru exclaimed happily, his tail wagging at full force as he waved to, the now, gaping Konohamaru and Ebisu.

Ebisu could only watch on in shock, his puny mind trying to piece together Naruto's strategy. '_What is he planning? What purpose does it serve him to __Henge_ _into a small child? You are an elite jonin, you should be able to figure out the strategy of a delinquent such as him'_ Ebisu thought to himself, as he observed, with rapt attention, Naru, who was currently observing the birds flying over head with child like glee. '_How dare this petulant punk ignore me?'_ Ebisu thought angrily, as every passing second only served to piss him off further the more thought about Naru. Ebisu was about to flip his shit and yell at Naru he took a deep breath and collected himself. _'Calm down, I am better than him. I am an elite jonin, he his nothing but vermin compared to me; I cannot allow the trash to get the better of me. Ah ha, so that was your plan, get me to lose my composure so you could get the upper hand' _Ebisu thought to himself, before mentally patting himself on the back for figuring out Naruto's 'plan'.

"Very clever Naruto, your plan was almost successful, if I had been anyone else it would have succeeded. But alas, I am your opponent and as an elite I would never fall for such underhanded and obvious tricks such as that" Ebisu gloated, his voice so full of pride and arrogance it put Sasuke to shame.

The moment Ebisu started flapping his gums, he got Naru's attention, who simply stared at him with a blank look on his face and his head tilted to the side. "Hey you're the mean man who twying to take Saru-chan away" Naru said accusingly, as he pointed a finger at Ebisu, completely ignoring the outraged looking Konohamaru at being called "Saru-chan".

"Drop this pointless charade, it isn't going to work on me" Ebisu said with a slight edge to his voice, as he used all of his mental discipline to stay calm.

"Imma deck you in the schnoz" Naru said happily, as held up his fist, as if for emphasis, with wide smile on his face. Naru let out a small excited giggle at what was to come next, his tail wagging happily behind him.

This of course got a confused reaction out of Ebisu, having never heard anybody use that terminology before in his life. "Wha-?" Ebisu tried to say before his face was made acquainted with Naru's fist. Before Ebisu could even fathom what happened, he was suddenly sent flying by the force of Naru's blow until he was out of sight.

"BYE GRUMPY-SAN" Naru yelled at the sky, and waved at Ebisu's falling form in the distance. Within moments of Naru finally stopped waving, he was once again enveloped in a cloud of orange smoke, which dissipated to Naruto with a wide smirk on his face.

"Oh man, I couldn't even beat that snobby tutor of mine and you do it with one punch. I still want to be Hokage so bad but I keep messing up, why can't I do it?" Konohamaru whined, after getting over the initial shock at seeing Naruto beat Ebisu so easily.

"So even after everything I told you about becoming a Kage, you still want to go threw with it despite the sweat, blood and tears it'll take to get there. Let me tell you this, there is no easy way to become Hokage. You're going to get knocked constantly; you'll face hardships along the way. Take me for example; I've been ostracized by the bastards of the village, treated like I'm a demon made flesh. Yet, I still find the strength to go on, because no matter to do me, I have people who depend on me. That is the most important thing about being a Kage, you have to be someone that people not only look up to but can depend on them during tough times" Naruto said with absolute conviction in his voice, as he mentally flashed threw the people that believe in him.

Konohamaru could only look at Naruto with awe at that moment, with the leaves floating and his jacket flapping in the wind, Naruto never looked cooler to him. '. _A Hokage has to be greatest warrior in their village, to ensure that they can protect the people care about'_ Naruto's words rung in Konohamaru's head, as a realization formed in his mind.

"Who do you think you are, giving me all these lectures and stuff like that? That's it, I'm no longer your apprentice, from now on were rivals. One day I'm going to defeat you in battle, after all a Hokage has to be the strongest warrior in the village, right" Konohamaru said with false anger in his voice at first, as he turned his back to Naruto, before it morphed into a wide grin.

"Heh, I couldn't be your trainer even if I wanted to gaki. For you see, starting tomorrow I start active service as a shinobi of Konoha. But what the hell, I'll accept your challenge. How 'bout this, if you manage to beat me someday, I'll coronate you as the Hokage myself. Until then, I want you train your ass off, because I want you to be at your absolute best when we fight…Sarutobi Konohamaru" Naruto said with a grin on his face as well, before walking off and waving goodbye to Konohamaru.

'_I won't let you down, I'll become the greatest shinobi ever'_ Konohamaru thought to himself with conviction, as he saluted Naruto.

**Well that's it for this chapter people, I hope you enjoyed it. I was originally going to have the chapter also encompass the bell test as well as an Omake, but this chapter was running a little long so I decided to end it here. Now let me clarify some things that might have confused some people**

**(1)- Let me make this clear, when Naruto was reborn into what he is now he assimilated personality traits from both the Espada and Kyuubi…and his dobe self. I chose to do this because I find it ridiculous in some stories where his memories are sealed; afterwards they remove almost all traces of canon Naruto. To me that doesn't make sense, since that dobe personality is still apart of his brain. Unlocking old memories wouldn't destroy that personality, it would alter it**. **So occasionally he will act like his dobe self, let me repeat that for some people,** **OCCASIONALLY. Not that often, just for comic relief and what not.**

**(2)- Yes I had Konohamaru somewhat recreate the Oiroke no Jutsu even though Naruto didn't actually teach him it. My reasoning is this; the Sexy Jutsu is an advanced and perverted version of the Transformation Jutsu. So it stands to reason that if you learn the Transformation jutsu you can learn the Sexy Jutsu. As for how he came up with it, well I really didn't want to write in the training sequence, so just imagine Naruto showing Konohamaru how to transform into a random woman. Then Konohamaru just expanded on it, yes I know that's lazy writing but I don't care right now. Also I made Konohamaru a little smarter in the story, I felt like as Hiruzen's grandson he should be a little smarter. **

**Stay tuned people for next time we get into team placements and the bell test. Questions will asked, teams will be formed, and shenanigans will be had. Now if you will excuse me, I have to try not to panic about starting college in a week.**


	4. Graduation Part 1

Naruto: Konoha's Arrancar Shinobi

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach; however I'm working on that. I have a plan to challenge Kishimoto and Kubo to a Xiaolin Showdown. Wish me luck. **

"I'm Batman" Regular Speech

"_I'm Batman" Inner Thought_

"I'm Batman" Jutsu/ technique

"**I'm Batman" ****Demonic Speech**

Chapter 4: Graduation: Part 1

Last time:

"Who do you think you are, giving me all these lectures and stuff like that? That's it, I'm no longer your apprentice, from now on were rivals. One day I'm going to defeat you in battle, after all a Hokage has to be the strongest warrior in the village, right" Konohamaru said with false anger in his voice at first, as he turned his back to Naruto, before it morphed into a wide grin.

"Heh, I couldn't be your trainer even if I wanted to gaki. For you see, starting tomorrow I start active service as a shinobi of Konoha. But what the hell, I'll accept your challenge. How 'bout this, if you manage to beat me someday, I'll coronate you as the Hokage myself. Until then, I want you train your ass off, because I want you to be at your absolute best when we fight…Sarutobi Konohamaru" Naruto said with a grin on his face as well, before walking off and waving goodbye to Konohamaru.

'_I won't let you down, I'll become the greatest shinobi ever'_ Konohamaru thought to himself with conviction, as he saluted Naruto.

(Six days Later: Konoha Academy: Iruka's Classroom)

'_I'm so freaking bored,'_ Naruto complained mentally, as he leaned back into his chair and put his feet on the desk. Naruto sighed aloud, mentally chastising himself for getting there so early, as he struggled to find anything to occupy his time. Trying to alleviate his boredom, Naruto decided to observe the large empty classroom he currently found himself in.

It was a fairly spacious room, with a high ceiling and tall wide windows on the right hand side that took up a good amount of space. The view from the windows was surprisingly pretty good, it allowed students to easily take a look at the clouds above, the nearby buildings and an old swing set Naruto that was very familiar with. Throughout the room were long vertical rows of desk which went all the way to the back wall, only broken up by the stairs that ran along side them. In the front of the class room sat an elevated section of wood with a podium for Iruka to talk and observe the class from. On the wall behind the podium was a large black board that took up a good portion of the area, leaving very little room for anything else. Along the classroom walls were numerous instructional/inspirational posters either pinned or taped down, each of them more generic than the last. After a minute or two of observing every little detail of the room he could, Naruto quickly fell back into boredom.

Naruto closed his eyes as he put his hands behind his head and sunk into, as best he could, the chair he was sitting in. The hard wooden back of the chair against his back was slightly uncomfortable, but hell a wooden chair can only be so comfortable. Taking a deep breath, Naruto seemingly reflected on the turn of events that led up to this point.

(Flashback: One Week Ago: Streets of Konoha)

"Pathetic old bastard." Naruto muttered angrily to himself, his face a mask of repressed anger, as he made his way to the rat infested hellhole that was his apartment. Naruto was thankful it was so late at night, for he did not have any patience for dealing with the idiotic civilians at that moment. Naruto walked unimpeded down the empty street, his only company were that of his thoughts and the moths overhead orbiting the street lights that illuminated his path. The crunch of the rocks under Naruto's sandals echoed slightly down the street, but Naruto paid it no heed, too wrapped up in his thoughts. However the solitude was not meant to last.

Naruto finally pulled himself out of his rage filled thoughts when he saw that he had entered the Red Light District in Konoha. '_The Red Light District…home to every pimp, prostitute, thug, vagrant, yakuza, brothel and gambling parlor in Konoha. Home sweet home!' _Naruto thought to himself sarcastically, as he walked threw the seedy underbelly of Konoha.

Flashing lights came from almost every possible angle, temporarily blinding him before his eyes adjusted to electronic onslaught. Gambling parlors and bars filled almost every part of the street, their flashing lights or signs illuminated the street more than any street light. Each and every building offering 'deals' or 'guarantees', trying to lure the poor fools into their halls to rob them of their money, and possibly their lives depending on the place.

Prostitutes flooded the streets, from every corner, ally, or outside a building they offered their services, who ranged from younger, more innocent girls down on their luck to the aged and experienced women, who were in the world's oldest profession for a long time. The local thugs stood 'menacingly' outside their boss's establishments, either leering at the prostitutes or sneering at passersby with their hands on their swords. Men, civilian and shinobi alike, staggered threw the street, almost all of them drunk off their asses as they either went home, more often than not with one of the local girls, or searched out for more. Naruto passed them by; one or two of them recognized him and started spewing both obscenities and what ever they ate that day on the ground, all of them too drunk to really do anything else. Naruto simply ignored them, trying his hardest not to simply cut their heads off to shut them up, as he clutched his katana firmly in his hand, the itch to kill them growing stronger with every curse sent his way.

"Hey Fishcake, what's with the new clothes? And did you get taller?" a homeless man yelled from an entrance to a nearby alleyway at Naruto, who turned to face him and was filled with a brief amount of joy. Sitting on the ground with one or two of his friends was a small man standing at about 5'0" with short graying hair and a medium sized beard that covered most of his neck. He had somewhat sunken-in brown eyes that were surrounded by a plethora wrinkles and age spots. As he leveled a smile at Naruto, it revealed he was missing more than one of his teeth.

On his head was a simple straw hat, which was frayed near edges and had a few small holes littering about it. He wore a dark grey jacket that went down to about his knees, if he were standing up at the moment, over a slightly tattered green button up shirt. He also wore stitched up black pants that surprising kept him warm, the pant legs resembling a quilt from all the patchwork done to it. And to top it off he wore simple wooden sandals on his feet. Naruto felt the frown on his face temporarily be replaced with a smile as he watched with keen interest as the old homeless man slightly stumble towards him.

"It's a long story old man," Naruto replied, mentally counting down for the man's outraged response. He wasn't disappointed by the result.

"Who are you calling an old man? Do you know who I am? I am Kotomura Nagi (1), Lord of the Bums, King of the Streets, and the man who united the homeless of Konoha under one glorious tattered banner. As well as one of the greatest chunin this village ever had!" Nagi yelled angrily as he stood up, thought he had a large smile on his face when he said it.

"Lord of the Bums? Hah…you're more like Lord of the Rums!" one of the other vagrants remarked loudly, getting a laugh from the third one as well as a smirk from Naruto. Nagi on the other hand wasn't as amused as they were. Nagi bowed his head as his entire body shook with 'anger' before he took a swing at the one who made the remark.

"I'll have you know that I am not an alcoholic! I just happen to partake in a swig of rum more than most," Nagi said furiously, as he took out his own bottle of rum for evidence. "They just don't understand Swiggy." Nagi muttered to his rum bottle, as he nuzzled his face against it for a brief second. '_One day the will learn to appreciate rum as I do…one day.'_ Nagi thought to himself with a shake of his head, as he slipped his rum bottle back into his inside pocket for later. Shaking his head at his fellow bum's 'foolishness' Nagi turned to face the now smirking Naruto. Nagi calmly walked over to where Naruto was standing, an expressionless look adorning his scruffy face. Nagi finally stopped when he was almost face to face with Naruto, as the two engaged in a stare-down of epic proportions.

"Fishcake," Nagi said flatly, as he still maintained eye contact with Naruto, whose eye threatened to twitch at that nickname.

"Drunkard," Naruto replied equally as flat, his face a picture perfect example of neutrality. However their stare-down came to end quickly as both Naruto and Nagi quickly broke into smiles and gave the other a small hug.

"It's good to see you again Nagi," Naruto said with a small grin on his face, as conversed with one of the few people he would gladly call a friend.

"Likewise Fishcake," Nagi replied, as he finally released Naruto from his hug, allowing him to do the same.

"You're never going to stop calling me that are you?" Naruto said with irritation in his voice, having to resist the urge to punch Nagi on the head. '_How many times to I have to say it, my name means "Maelstrom" not "Fishcake"' _Naruto thought to himself, almost yelling it aloud, but decided it would be a waste of breath.

"Why stop now?" Nagi responded with a smirk, knowing damn well how much Naruto hated his little nickname. "But enough about that, what in the name of the Shodaime Hokage happened to you? Last time I saw you, you were a pint sized, orange wearing loudmouth ranting about becoming Hokage. But now, look at you…if it weren't for the whisker marks I might not have recognized yah," Nagi continued, using his arms for emphasis on both Naruto's previous height and that of how much he changed.

"Nagi lets just say I've had a…interesting night. One that I'm not liable to forget anytime soon and lets leave it at that," Naruto replied with an edge in his voice, unintentionally flashing back to his meeting with Sarutobi. Taking a deep breath, Naruto felt the rage inside him slowly simmer down back into recession for the moment.

"Fair enough kid," Nagi replied, an unreadable expression on his face, one that he had spent a good portion of his shinobi career perfecting. '_Not my place to pry, he'll tell me when he wants to.' _Nagi rationalized mentally, content with waiting for Naruto tell him the details. "Well it's been fun Fishcake but it seems my people need me once more, such as the life of the Lord of the Bums," Nagi said melodramatically, feigning sorrow as he walked towards his fellow vagrants after making a long overblown dramatic gesture.

"Yeah…you go do that," Naruto relied as he watched Nagi walk away before he turned around and waved goodbye with his unoccupied hand. Shaking his head at Nagi's melodramatics, Naruto weakly returned the wave before putting his hands in his haori's pockets and walking off. Within moments of departing from Nagi, Naruto changed into that of his emotionless form, his good mood completely obliterated and replaced with cold indifference and anger. It also didn't help that his apartment complex quickly came into view, further killing his once good mood and replacing it with a slow simmering fury.

'_How this building hasn't been condemned yet is beyond me.'_ Naruto thought bitterly, as he observed the broken down hellhole that was his apartment building. The entire building was about four stories tall, making it one of the taller buildings in the Red Light District. Trash littered around the entrance to the complex, its stench permeating the air causing Naruto to scrunch up his nose in disgust. The building itself was in disrepair, cracks were scattered all over and some of the windows were broken in, mainly the windows near his apartment, allowing the cold air to seem into the building like a plague.

'_The better question is…why do I still live in this rundown rat's nest?'_ Naruto thought to himself, knowing the answer all too well. This was the only place in the Red Light District, let alone Konoha, that would give him a room and that was only because Sarutobi ordered them to. The landlord wasn't happy about that, but the miserable old bastard had found away to get at him without raising a finger. He raised Naruto's rent, turned off his hot water, changed the locks, in a vein attempt to get him to leave on his own. This didn't deter his dobe self in the slightest, as he always somehow found a way to overcome the bastard landlord's efforts, much to the old bastard's annoyance. But since somehow Naruto always came up with his rent money, the landlord couldn't rightfully kick him out, lest he incur Sarutobi's 'wrath'. It aggravated Naruto to no end that the landlord horded all of the rent money he had accumulated, instead of, you know, FIXING THE GODDAMN BUILDING.

Shaking his head of these thoughts, Naruto opened the door to his complex and entered, careful not to step on one of the squeaky floorboards that never seemed to get fixed. As Naruto climbed the stairs to his apartment, he felt disgust swell up inside of him at the conditions around him. The wood was rotting around the stairwells. Some planks being so rotten that the slightest weight would cause them to collapse on themselves. Paint peeled from the wall and ceiling, leaving piles of paint chips on the ground that stacked up like anthills.

Naruto narrowed his eyes briefly as he finally came across the door to his apartment, now covered in fresh, hateful graffiti. On his door were the standard "Die Demon" "Monster" and "Go Back to Hell", with one or two new hate filled messages on his door or wall. Naruto was slightly thankful that they didn't break down the door to his apartment, not matter how crappy it may be. Resolving to remove the graffiti from his door, once again, tomorrow, as there were more pressing issues at hand at the moment.

However the moment Naruto opened his door, he was immediately bombarded by a stench that nearly had him in tears. "GAH" Naruto cried in shock as he clutched his nose, trying in vain to prevent the horrendous odor from entering his nasal passages, to no avail I'm afraid. Normally to any passerby Naruto's apartment would just stink a little, but to those with enhanced senses like the Inuzuka clan or Naruto it was a pungent odor that raped their olfactory senses. Quickly using his haori to shield his nose, Naruto practically Sonido'd to the window and threw it open with tremendous force. Sticking his head out the window, Naruto took multiple deep intakes of breath, while simultaneously swallowing the bile rising in his throat.

After getting the necessary amounts of oxygen, Naruto pulled his head back into the room and felt disgust at what he saw. Ramen cups scattered on the floor, some having uneaten noodles hanging out of them, a few actually glowing in the dark from mold. Clothes were flung about all over the apartment, most if not all of them being severely unwashed. A few flies were buzzing about the trash lying around, though thankfully they quickly escaped threw the window. Hell, if Naruto's eyes were playing tricks on him, than he even saw a cockroach dragging a fully grown rat's carcass through a hole in the wall.

Scrunching his face in disgust at the state of his apartment, Naruto quickly crossed his figures and made a Kage Bushin. Wordlessly, Naruto gave his commands to his newly formed clone, which nodded in return and began cleaning the apartment. Satisfied that his clone would get the job done, Naruto hurriedly walked to his bedroom, trying desperately to avoid breathing in the noxious air. After throwing open and slamming the door to his bedroom behind him, Naruto took a deep intake of breath, seeing as how the air was far more breathable in there.

'_Alright…lets do this' _Naruto thought to himself, as he took a deep breath and gained a look of determination. As he made his way towards his crappy, squeaky as hell bed, Naruto completely removed his katana, sheathe and all, from the sash around his waist. '_It's about time I finally received some answers.' _ Naruto thought mentally, as he sat cross-legged on his bed, his sword rested across his lap. Naruto closed his eyes as he shifted into a meditative position, as he took deep, slow breaths.

'"_Take deep breaths Naruto-kun; listen to your breathing and only your breathing for now. I want you let the world around you fade away, until the world is nothing but an empty void"'_ Naruto recalled, as his sensei's teachings came to the forefront of his mind, while following the steps exactly. '_In and out.' _Naruto repeated over and over again, as he felt his body unwind, his body slumping as he listened to the rhythmic sound of his breathing. Slowly but surely Naruto felt the world around fade, his nose was no longer assaulted by the reeking odors that wafted in the air. His ears were deaf to the sound of his clone's cleaning and the chirping crickets outside. Within moments, Naruto felt himself leave the conscious world and be drawn into the furthest recesses of his mind.

(Naruto's Mindscape: Espada Manor (2))

Naruto slowly opened his eyes, relieved that instead of the sight of his revolting apartment he was greeted by the large ornate doors of his mindscape. He quickly grabbed hold of the large gold rings held in the decorate lion-head door knocker's mouth, and, with little to no effort, threw the doors wide open. Immediately he was greeted by a better view of the main courtyard at the center of the compound, which so happened to be where his white clad tenants were presently.

With a steely look in his eyes, Naruto pressed onwards towards the remaining Espada, intent on getting some answers to the questions that plagued his mind. With every step he took through the garden pathway, Naruto moved closer and closer to his spiritual tenants. It wasn't long before Naruto was close enough to make out the sounds of metal clashing against metal and his tenant's conversations, thanks to his newly acquired heightened senses.

"Stand still you pale faced bastard." Grimmjow yelled furiously as he unleashed a devastating barrage of slashes with Pantera. All of which, unfortunately for Grimmjow, were either dodged or parried by his pale skinned opponent Ulquiorra, who, to Grimmjow's irritation, didn't seem to be exerting much effort in their short duel thus far.

'_Fight back dammit! Let me hit you'_ Grimmjow thought angrily while he grit his teeth in frustration, as his strikes got progressively quicker and more brutal. His attacks tore threw the air like a shark threw the ocean, his blade crying out of the blood of his opponent.

"Can you stop yelling already? Some of us are trying to take a nap here" Starrk said irritably from his place lying in the shadow of a large tree. '_Those two are almost as bad as…Lilynette,_' Starrk thought to himself, with irritation at first, followed by sadness at the loss of his other half. '_Lilynette…I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise to you…But I have feeling wherever you are right now, you're not lonely_' Starrk cried mentally, as clutched his hands tightly in a rare show of energy and emotion, almost completely unseen by his fellow Espada.

However both Grimmjow's angry reply and Starrk's depressing thoughts were put on hold by the sound of rocks crunching under someone's feet. They all turned towards the direction the sound was coming from and saw Naruto speeding toward them.

"Don't stop on my account," Naruto's voice rang out before he came into view, a blank look on his face as walked forwards with his hands in his pockets.

"Heh…it's about time you showed up kid," Grimmjow said with anger, as he laid the flat side of Pantera on his shoulder. '_Little bastard, how dare he keep us waiting like this_' Grimmjow thought to himself, a sneer making its way onto his face.

"I'm here now, and that's what matters! It's time we finish our previous conversation, you have answers I need at the moment. And you no doubt have questions have questions that demand answers, so let's quit avoiding the issue!" Naruto said somewhat harshly, not in the mood to put up with anyone's bullshit, especially after tonight.

"I suggest you change you tone Naruto-san, it's not welcome here." Harribel said with absolute seriousness, as she stood up from her place on the ground, where she had been idly observing Grimmjow and Ulquiorra's match, with her eyes narrowed. The two engaged in a brief stare down that lasted well over a minute, before Naruto closed his eyes and sighed.

"I…I'm sorry." Naruto muttered out, as he slumped his shoulders slightly while looking down at the ground with no small bit of shame. '_How could I lose my temper that easily? I should know better by now, after all sensei practically drilled controlling my emotions into my head._' Naruto mentally cursed himself, despite Grimmjow acting like a complete asshole. It took a few seconds more of mental chastising before Naruto raised his head and locked eyes with Harribel once more.

'_Hm…strange, I can't find any trace of deceit in his eyes. There might be more potential in him than I gave him credit for._' Harribel thought to herself with surprise, before adopting a small, unseen, grin underneath her hollow mask. With a small nod to Naruto, Harribel took a couple steps backwards and leaned against a nearby wall.

"Now as I was saying, we need to finish the conversation we were having before we were interrupted," Naruto continued with a much more humble and subdued tone, getting nods from the Espada, most of which in agreement. "Before we begin, I want to say one thing…thank you. I know I said that earlier but without your help Iruka-sensei and I would be dead right now." Naruto said while bowing slightly to his, mostly, white clad saviors, all of whom were starring at him in shock.

"**Tch, What are you thanking them for? I did most of the work in saving your pathetic ass, you miserable ningen.**" Kyuubi said irritably, having just now woken up from its nap, as it craned its massive neck to look over the compound wall to look at Naruto and company.

"I was going to thank you first Kyuubi, but I figured you needed your beauty sleep." Naruto said with a small smirk, getting an angry growl from the Kyuubi as it narrowed its eyes at Naruto.

"**Insolent gaki, I don't want your thanks! I only saved your ass because I didn't want to go through the hassle of reforming myself afterwards if I let you explode, don't forget that!**" Kyuubi roared out in response, its tails flailing behind it as Kyuubi used every bit of its self control not to squash Naruto like a bug.

"Regardless, now that you're awake I can ask you all my questions." Naruto said, after a few moments of silence, as he glared at Kyuubi with his fists clenched. After a brief stare down, Naruto closed his eyes and started taking several calming breaths. With each breath, Naruto felt the anger inside of him slip away like a river until it was gone. With a relaxed sigh escaping his lips, Naruto opened his eyes once more and turned his back to the irate Kyuubi to that of the Espada.

"What do you want to know Naruto- Kun?" Nelliel asked kindly, as she clasped her hands in front of her while she put the book she, somehow, had to the side.

"Firstly, who are you people? I know bits and pieces due to our…arrangement, but I want to know the names of the people who saved my life. I'll go first, my name is Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto replied as he starred at each individual Espada as they introduced themselves.

"The names Jaegerjaquez Grimmjow and don't you forget it!" the blue haired arrancar, now identified as Grimmjow, boasted with an arrogant smile on his face as he pointed to himself with his thumb. Naruto had to resist the urge to roll his eyes at Grimmjow's boisterous introduction, seeing as how doing so otherwise would probably result in him getting his ass kicked by the blue haired arrancar.

"Cifer Ulquiorra" the paled skinned Espada with a dull monotone as he observed Naruto with his cold, unyielding gaze. Naruto involuntarily shivered under Ulquiorra's gaze, as a cold chill made it's was down his spine, as if though someone was walking over his grave (3).

"I'm Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, Naruto-kun," exclaimed the busty green haired woman, as she gave Naruto a wide, kind smile which immediately undid the effects of Ulquiorra's soul piercing gaze. Naruto, in turn, returned her wide grin with one of his own though it was much smaller than her infectious grin.

"Starrk (yawn)…Coyote Starrk" the brown haired arrancar, now dubbed Starrk, drawled out as he lazily raised his hand in greeting before yawning once more. Naruto starred at Starrk with an incredulous expression plastered on his face, as a massive sweat drop forming on the back of his head.

'_This guy could give Shikamaru a run for his money._' Naruto thought in disbelief.

"My name is Tia Harribel" stated the buxom blonde arrancar, while she gave Naruto the slightest of nods, as if to meet his acquaintance. Naruto returned her nod with one of his own, before he turned his attention his largest and furriest tenant.

"**Ha, if you think you're learning my name so easily you have another thing coming, you're not worthy enough to know my name ningen. You're going to have to earn that honor!**" Kyuubi bellowed out angrily, its voice laced with hostility as it glared at Naruto.

Naruto starred blankly at the Kyuubi for well over a minute, before he lowered his head as a smirk made its way onto his face. "Fine…challenge accepted," Naruto declared confidently with a smirk into a somewhat cocky and confident grin as he locked eyes with the, now, confused looking bijou.

"**What the hell are you going on about?**" Kyuubi asked with a raised eyebrow (does Kurama have eyebrows?) as it glanced down at his hybrid jailor.

"Simple, I'm going to learn your name, whether you like it or not you've piqued my interest. I'm going to spent foreseeable future trying to 'earn the honor' of knowing your name," Naruto relied somewhat jokingly, with a hint of sarcasm near the end.

The Kyuubi looked at Naruto with disbelief written all over its furry features, as it unintentionally replaced Naruto with its surrogate father and creator for a brief moment. Kyuubi quickly shook its head to rid itself of those, in its opinion, horrible and inaccurate comparison. Kyuubi was about to reprimand Naruto for his sheer audacity, when it was rudely interrupted by Grimmjow's interjection.

"Hold up Gaki, you're not gonna really gonna have a chance to learn old fuzz ball's name any time soon," Grimmjow interrupted with a small scowl on his face as he marched close to Naruto and got right in his face near the end.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at Grimmjow's phrasing and the fact he was invading his personal space. "What do you mean by that?" Naruto stated with absolute seriousness, as he grabbed his katana's handle on the off chance the situation were to escalate into conflict. Naruto and Grimmjow's manly stare off was cut off by the sound of Harribel clearing her throat to get their attention.

"What Grimmjow is trying, and failing, to say is that you are not going to have much time to attempt to learn Kyuubi-san's true name due to the fact that you will not have adequate time to try and figure it out," Harribel said quickly with a sigh at the end, trying to diffuse the situation before it got out of hand due to Grimmjow's poor choice of words.

"Busy with what exactly?" Naruto asked with an eyebrow raised in both confusion and hesitance, as he still kept his hand firmly grasped on his sword.

"Training!" Nelliel injected with a serious look replacing the normally bubbly and friendly look that Naruto had been accustomed to seeing during the short period he had known her for.

"…What's the catch?" Naruto asked hesitantly as he slowly removed his hand from his katana, whilst scanning the looks on his other tenant's face. Naruto carefully observed every little inch of his tenant's faces as he could, looking for even the barest hint of deceit or betrayal. After moments of careful observation, Naruto finally removed his hand from his sword and relaxed his posture slightly, if his shoulders slumping were any indication.

"Why would you all want train me? What do get out of this?" Naruto asked with no small amount of suspicion in his voice.

"While you were having your conversation with the person you call 'Sarutobi', the others and I discussed our current predicament. From what we have been able to gather from Kyuubi and our own observations, we realized that we are stuck indefinitely in your body. Add in the fact that due to our arrangement, that our souls are intertwined to a certain degree, should you perish in battle, than we would die as well once more Therefore, that makes you our host as well as representative in the outside world, and thus you need to be trained in order to survive." Ulquiorra explained to Naruto on behalf of the other Espada, all of whom nodded in agreement in some form or fashion.

"As long as we're stuck in here Gaki, you're our representative, and that means you have to get stronger because I refuse to have a weak host. We're going to train you into the freaking ground and won't stop until there is no force on Earth that can stop you." Grimmjow said assertively, his narrowed as he poked Naruto several times in the chest to emphasize his point.

"Under normal circumstances I would question this, but seeing as how these aren't normal circumstances by any means, I'll ignore it for now. However, you'll have to forgive me if I don't automatically trust you, despite all you've done for me. Hopefully we'll be able to change that as time goes on." Naruto said with a serious monotone, having once again switched forms, as he starred at the Espada with as much suspicion, not that you could tell considering the blank look on his face.

"Whatever gaki, that doesn't matter since your beatdow-…I mean training, begins…NOW." Grimmjow yelled as he unsheathed Pantera faster than Naruto could blink and with a mighty war cry, swung Pantera at Naruto with an insane grin. The sound of metal striking against metal once again echoed like thunder throughout the courtyard, as Grimmjow and Naruto's clashed in a shower of sparks.

"What the hell?" Naruto yelled in outrage, as he struggled to hold Grimmjow's blade back.

"Consider this a test." Grimmjow yelled with sadistic glee in his voice, his already manic grin widening as he put more force on his blade.

'_Dammit this bad, he's more powerful than I am and he knows it. How the hell am I supposed to survive, let alone fight him?'_ Naruto though despairingly as he slowly but surely started to lose ground against the ever ferocious Grimmjow.

'_Screw this,_' Naruto thought to himself as disengaged his weapon from Grimmjow's while simultaneously back flipping about ten feet away. '_Okay that bought me a few seconds, think Naruto, how can you beat this…crap.'_ Naruto pondered in midair as he landed on the ground with a somewhat heavy thud, only to be immediately be intercepted by the blue haired arrancar.

"Ha, your going to have to do much better than if you want to live." Grimmjow declared as he swung Pantera at Naruto's kidneys, only for it to be blocked, barely, by Naruto's blade. Unfortunately for Naruto, Grimmjow simply pressed onwards with his assault, completely undeterred by anything he did. Without wasting a single moment, Grimmjow spun slightly on his heel and spun nearly a full 360 degrees, his blade facing outwards ready to cut into Naruto's flesh.

'_Crap!'_ Naruto thought as he once again blocked Grimmjow's slash with one of his own, a flash of sparks flying off their respective weapons. Naruto grit his teeth in exertion as he struggled to block Grimmjow's furious barrage of attacks. Slash after slash, Grimmjow pursued our hybrid protagonist, his strikes ever increasing in speed. Each clash of their blades echoed like thunder, sparks flying from their blades like glowing embers in the wind after a fire.

"That's more like it!" Grimmjow yelled with glee; before he unleashed one particularly strong overhead strike that caused Naruto's knees to buckle slightly. Grimmjow didn't hesitate to take advantage of this, and quickly kicked Naruto square in the chest with a small fraction of his true strength.

"Gah," Naruto blurted out in pain, a mix of blood and spittle spewing from his lips, as he was thrown backwards from the force of the kick, his feet leaving grooves in the ground from where he slid. '_Dammit!'_ Naruto cursed mentally, barely able to stand, as he clutched his aching chest, each breath causing his lungs to ignite with pain. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the causally approaching Grimmjow, who simply starred at him with a cocky smirk on his face.

"Come on you little bastard, I know you can do better." Grimmjow yelled as he charged Naruto, a look of irriation replacing the cocky smirk on his face.

"You want me to do better…you got it." Naruto yelled furiously in response before he disappeared from view via Sonido. Within the span of a second Naruto appeared behind Grimmjow, his sword cleaving threw the air towards Grimmjow's unprotected back.

"Nice try gaki, but…" Grimmjow stated with a small laugh as he spun slightly on his heel and blocked Naruto's strike with ease. "Still not good enough." Grimmjow finished as he parried Naruto's sword to the side and quickly threw a punch towards Naruto's face.

Naruto promptly titled his head to avoid the attempted blow, Grimmjow's fist mere centimeters from making its mark. '_I can't beat him with only kenjutsu; he's light-years ahead of me in skill. I have to keep my distance, its time I use what these people have given me.' _Naruto rationalized as he leapt backwards, just in at the right time to as Grimmjow lashed out with a swing of his sword that would have bisected him. With a stern look on his face, Naruto clenched his free hand into a tight fist, his bones cracking in unison (3) from the strain. '_Focus. Let the reiatsu flow into your hand,' _Naruto instructed mentally to himself, as his fist quickly became enveloped in a familiar red aura.

"Bala!" Naruto muttered lowly, as to not to attract Grimmjow's attention, before he thrust his fist forwards, the energy in his hand rocketing off his hand towards his blue haired opponent. The red bullet tore threw the air like a like an ethereal missile, the speed it traveled at making it look like a red blur to any passerby. After seconds of traveling through the air, the Bala neared its target, to which Grimmjow simply starred at the incoming bullet of reiatsu with a cocky smirk on his face. Within a blink of an eye the Bala made contact with Grimmjow, an enormous cloud of dust enshrouded the nearby area after the initial explosion of reiatsu.

"Like I said gaki, still not good enough." Grimmjow's voice rang out from the cloud of dust, before the cloud gradually dispersed little by little. '_Still, it was a nice though.' _Grimmjow thought with a small amount of pride, as he nonchalantly dusted himself off whilst never breaking eye contact with Naruto.

'_No way.'_ Naruto thought in disbelief, his eyes widening slightly at the sight of a completely unscathed Grimmjow. Shaking out of his brief stupor, Naruto narrowed his eyes at the blue haired arrancar, before sheathing his sword and throwing his fist back. "Bala" Naruto yelled undeterred by Grimmjow's apparent indestructibility, as he unleashed a barrage of red death towards Grimmjow. His fists rocketed back and forth like pistons made flesh, each punch shooting off another Bala.

"Tch." Grimmjow sneered with a frown on his face, as he eyed the red projectiles heading towards him. '_Does he really think this is going to beat me?'_ Grimmjow thought incredulously, before letting out a sigh of disappointment and swinging his sword towards the nearest Bala. With no effort whatsoever the silver blade cleaved thru the red bullet, the two halves flying behind Grimmjow before they exploded with a thunderous boom. Wasting no time at all, Grimmjow charged forward with an annoyed expression on his face, swinging his sword wildly at each approaching Bala. Explosions rained down behind Grimmjow, each one illuminating him in an intimidating red light before it dispersed.

'_Okay, there is approximately a three second delay after each swing, I need to wait for the right time,_' Naruto calculated mentally, carefully counting every second between Grimmjow's strikes. '_Wait for it…wait for it, go!' _Naruto chanted mentally before rushing forwards, his fist ablaze with red reiatsu. '_10 meters…7 meters…5 meters…NOW!'_ Naruto declared, before he threw his fist forwards with all of his might, launching an abnormally large Bala towards Grimmjow.

"How many times are you gonna use the same goddamn trick? Face it, its not gonna work," Grimmjow yelled in frustration, as glared at the glowing spiritual bullet, more like cannonball, rocketing towards him with tremendous force. With a small yell, Grimmjow cleaved threw the red ball of death with a single slash of his blade. "Is that all you've got gaki?" Grimmjow asked arrogantly whilst his blade was halfway cleaving through the bullet.

"Not even close," Naruto's voice rang out from behind Grimmjow, who turned to look at him, or more specifically his now somewhat blood stained sword.

Grimmjow's eyes follow a small trail of blood staining Naruto's blade, the light illuminating the blood with an eerie glow. '_How the hell…?'_ Grimmjow pondered in disbelief for a brief second before immediately looking towards his abdomen, which now sported a long, thin cut near the middle that was slightly trickling blood. '_He actually hit me…,'_ Grimmjow repeated mentally for a moment, before he lowered his head and started laughing. "You actually managed to land a solid cut on me…good. Now let's kick things up a bit." Grimmjow yelled excitedly after his bout of maniacal laughter, a large sadistic grin stretching the confines of his face.

'_That's all the damage I managed to inflict on him! One measly scratch,_' Naruto gaped mentally as he starred at the shallow cut on Grimmjow's abdomen with wide eyes. Naruto was forcefully knocked out of his stupor by Grimmjow disappearing with a burst of speed, only for him to appear directly in front of Naruto. '_Crap!'_ Naruto yelled mentally, quickly back flipping to avoid being cleaved into by Grimmjow's powerful overhead slash.

"Shit." Naruto muttered angrily under his breath before he lunged to the side to avoid another of Grimmjow's blows. Naruto quickly ducked under another of Grimmjow's swipes, the blade barely missing his head only taking a few strands of hair being severed from his person. Unfortunately for Naruto, Grimmjow decided to make the bottom of his sandal make acquaintance with Naruto's face. The force of the blow sent Naruto flying backwards, his back painfully crashing against a nearby wall as cracks formed around his imbedded body in the wall. "Dammit!" Naruto growled out between grit teeth, only vaguely paying attention to the warm blood cascading down the side of his face. '_I will not be beaten like this!'_ Naruto thought angrily, as raw determination rushed threw his veins like a raging river, filling him with newfound strength. With his steely gaze and grit teeth, Naruto glared at the slowly approaching Grimmjow with anger coursing threw his veins. With power coursing threw him Naruto threw his weight forward and charged forward, his blade firmly clutched in hand, ready to cut Grimmjow down if he had to.

Time seemed to slow down for Naruto and Grimmjow as they grew closer and closer, as the world slowly faded around them. The sound of rocks crunching underneath their feet filled their ears, only offset by that of their surprisingly calm breathing. Their eyes locked onto one another in an intense stare down, both unwilling to yield to the other. The moment they were in striking distance of each other, they swung their blades with everything they had in them. Their blades tore thru the wind, appearing as nothing more than twin crescents of silver. The world came crashing down with the force of a hurricane the moment the two blades struck each other in a thunderous clash. '_I will win!'_ Naruto and Grimmjow thought simultaneously before their reiatsu flared and wrapped around them. The ground surrounding the two combatants cracked under the strain of the overbearing energies.

"This is going too far." Nelliel stated furiously, her normally chipper and beautiful face marred by a particularly nasty scowl. She narrowed her eyes at the, in her opinion, idiocy that Grimmjow was currently engaging in by issuing this duel. With a quick use of Sonido, Nelliel rushed towards the two combatants, intent on ending this farce right then and there. With nothing more than the sound of a miniature sonic boom, Nelliel vanished from her spot amongst her fellow arrancar as she rocketed towards the two combatants.

'_This isn't good, I'm starting tire already. How strong is this guy?' _Naruto thought despairingly, as he felt his muscles scream from exertion. Naruto grit his teeth as he struggled to fight back Grimmjow's blade, his arms shaking mildly while he continued to push back.

"Ha, you've put up more of a fight than I thought you would gaki. But it doesn't matter; you're not strong enough to beat me so let's end this already." Grimmjow stated with a grin on his face, before he felt an intense amount of pain coming from the side of his face. '_Wha-…' _Grimmjow thought before he was sent flying towards a nearby wall, before he impacted with it. "What the…hell hit me?" Grimmjow muttered as he rubbed his aching face, his face a contorted in a mix of pain and anger.

"Grimmjow, what on earth were you thinking?" Nelliel chastised furiously, causing Grimmjow to look up at her from his place on the ground.

"What was I thinking? I was training the little bastard, until you came along and blindsided me." Grimmjow yelled in reply as he stood up, finally recovering from Nelliel's 'cheap shot'.

"Trying to kill someone doesn't count as training." Nelliel countered angrily, her grip on Gamyusa tightening as she locked eyes with Grimmjow. This went on for a few seconds before Nelliel turned away from the livid Grimmjow and rushed over towards Naruto. "Naruto-kun! Are you okay?" Nelliel yelled/asked worriedly as she grabbed Naruto in a tight hug, once again trapping Naruto between her bountiful breasts.

'_Hm…so soft, so firm…no focus Naruto. Focus! I need to conserve as much air as I can, other wise I'll suffocate. But what a way to go.' _Naruto commented to himself, struggling to resist the urge to nestle his head in Nelliel's clothed cleavage.

"I wasn't gonna kill him. Besides, if he was weak enough to get killed by that, than he isn't worth training in the first place." Grimmjow replied causing Nelliel to release Naruto, who look several deep breaths, an intense frown once more appearing on her beautiful face.

"He's only 'weak' because he is out of practice and not accustomed to this body yet. What he needs is a guiding hand to help get back to his prime, to carefully show him how we fight before we start training him seriously." Nelliel explained, her voice losing some of its anger and replaced with frustration, unconsciously placing one of her hands on her shapely hips with the other clutching Gamyusa.

"Oh yeah, that's a great idea. Let's get the little bastard back to his prime, waste countless weeks for to get ready for the actual training. Only for him to get COMPLETELY DESTROYED during an actual fight. You're right about one thing, he is out of practice and I'm going to beat him into the ground as many times as it takes for him to get back into shape." Grimmjow said sarcastically before launching into a rage induced rant, his fists clenched tightly.

"Enough!" Harribel commanded, as she unleashed a massive amount of spiritual pressure onto her bickering cohorts. A bright yellow aura enveloped the buxom blonde, as she leveled an intense glare at Grimmjow and, to a lesser extend, Nelliel.

'_…Dammit.' _Grimmjow exclaimed mentally, as his body collapsed onto the ground below, an ungodly pressure weighing him down. "Come on…move already." Grimmjow muttered out as he unleashed his own reiatsu to counter Harribel's overpowering aura. Grimmjow let out a small sigh of relief when he felt the pressure crushing him lessen considerably. With strained breaths, Grimmjow shakily push himself upwards, his fingers digging tiny grooves into the ground as he slowly brought one of his hands into a loose fist. Grimmjow craned his head upwards to glare at the 'bitch' known has Harribel, rage practically rolling off him like a wave.

'_She's stronger than I imagined, no wonder they chose her to replace me.' _Nelliel rationalized, as she starred at Harribel with a smidgen of respect in her eyes. Thinking quickly Nelliel unleashed a moderate amount of her reiatsu, her body being enveloped in a light green aura. With no effort on her part, Nelliel confidently stood tall, her reiatsu completely negating Harribel's spiritual pressure.

'_Its like dealing with children,'_ Harribel thought with a sigh, before briefly rubbing her temple to sooth her small headache. '_I think I have their attention now.'_ Harribel observed as she watched with some interest as her fellow Espada managed to even move under the effects of her reiatsu. "Are you two done bickering like idiotic children?" Harribel asked sternly, her eyes narrowed as if daring them to say "no". After a moment or two of silence, Harribel closed her eyes and sighed as she slowly but surely lowered her spiritual pressure until it had completely ceased.

"**Damn…there goes my source of entertainment.**" Kyuubi mocked with a deep chuckle rumbling in its throat, which was promptly ignored by the buxom Espada.

'_Arrogant bitch,' _Grimmjow thought furiously, as he glared at Harribel with an intense fury in his wild, blue eyes. His glare was matched by buxom blonde arrancar, who unflinchingly starred him dead in the eyes. '_She's not worth it.'_ Grimmjow reasoned to himself after a few moments of contemplating about attacking Harribel.

"This conflict is pointless as well as counterproductive; your constant bickering is only hindering our efforts." Harribel stated coldly, her eyes no longer burrowing holes into Grimmjow alone, as Nelliel was also a victim of her piercing gaze.

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Nelliel inquired after a few moments under Harribel's gaze, her tone reflecting the slight shame she felt about arguing with Grimmjow.

"We find a middle ground between your individual training methods." Ulquiorra stated, forcing everyone to turn their attention towards the pale arrancar. Ulquiorra turned his gaze from that of his bickering cohorts to Naruto, who looked at him with a blank stare before nodding in respect. "While you argued like idiotic pieces of trash, the both of you make valid arguments in regard to Uzumaki's training. It would take too long to simply let Uzumaki train to get back to his prime, therefore leaving him without proper instruction or experience," Ulquiorra continued, his eyes moving on to Nelliel, who nodded begrudgingly to his argument.

"HA!" Grimmjow taunted smugly, which received glares from Naruto, Harribel, and Nelliel, with a large smirk on his face.

"However, simply assaulting Uzumaki without any proper guidance or training is even more idiotic and detrimental. While this 'might' give Uzumaki experience in fighting opponents more powerful than himself, it would also possibly take him out of commission for longer than need should your 'training' session go to far. I purpose that combine your individual training plans into one cohesive training regiment." Ulquiorra countered immediately, causing Grimmjow's smirk to quickly transform into a nasty glare.

"Sounds reasonable…how do you all feel about this?" Naruto asked aloud, causing everyone's focus to shift from Ulquiorra to him, before looking amongst themselves.

"I'm all for it Naruto-kun." Nelliel exclaimed happily, though slightly disappointed her training routine was so easily picked apart by Ulquiorra.

"This seems like the best course of action…I'll support it." Harribel stated calmly after a moment of intense thought, her voice taking on a much more pleasant and controlled tone. '_Finally someone here who doesn't act like an idiot.'_ Harribel thought with a mental sigh of relief, happy to know at there was one person trapped along side her who wasn't immature or lazy.

"(Yawn)…Sure why not?" Starrk drawled out with a particularly loud yawn before rolling over in the soft grass and once again accepting the comforting embrace of sleep.

"Tch…fine, I'll just have to pick up the slack when it's my turn to train the little bastard." Grimmjow growled out angrily, his face contorted in nasty sneer, as he barely reigned in his rage at this development.

"Then it's settled, starting from this point onwards you are now our pupil as well as representative in the outside world." Ulquiorra stated blankly, getting nods, some begrudgingly, from his fellow arrancars in agreement before he turned his gaze towards the enraged looking bijou.

"**Don't even think about asking me, you pale, melancholy bastard. I'm content to just sit here and wait for the hairless ape to come begging for a mere fraction of my power. It's only a matter off time; you'll come begging just like all the rest. You're nothing special gaki, just another power grubbing parasite like the rest of your species.**" Kyuubi roared out in fury, its tails flailing behind it like a bushel of snakes. '_**Damn arrancar…where the hell does he get the nerve to even allude to me training the blond ape? Don't trust them; they're just like everybody else. They'll use me for my power and then lock me up once more when they don't need me.**_' Kyuubi ranted mentally as it narrowed its hate filled eyes at Naruto, its massive body trembling with rage.

"Hm, I guess I'll have to prove you wrong then, wont I?" Naruto replied in the utmost seriousness, his arms loosely crossed in front of him, as he starred down the furious fox.

"**Get…OUT**" Kyuubi growled out menacingly with its lips pulled back in a feral snarl showing its razor sharp teeth gleaming in the artificial light of Naruto's mind. The mighty bijou then took in a giant lung full of air, its entire body leaning backwards as it took in more and more air. Without warning, Kyuubi threw its head forwards and released an earth shattering roar than echoed throughout the recesses of Naruto's mind. A gust of hot, putrid wind swept over Naruto and, to a lesser extend, the other Espada, the force comparable to that of a hurricane.

"Gah" Naruto yelled out in shock as he moved one of his arms in front of him to shield his face from Kyuubi's roar. The hot air swept over him like a river, pushing him backwards as he struggled against the unnatural gust with all of his might. Little by little Naruto was forced backwards, his feet leaving ever growing grooves into the ground. With a startled yell, Naruto was blown off his feet and flung into the air above him, where he was continued to rocket backwards.

'_Son of a bitch.'_ Naruto, somehow, calmly exclaimed mentally as starred at the wall he was rapidly approaching with no chance of slowing down in the slightest. '_10…9…8_' Naruto counted down in his mind, having already guessed approximately how long he had left before he impacted harshly with the wall. Using what little time he had left, Naruto quickly shifted his body in midair so that his back would make first contact with the wall instead of his face. '_7…6…5'_ Naruto continued, briefly turning his gaze towards the, still, roaring bijou. '_I will unravel your secrets Kyuubi. Count on it!'_ Naruto thought with a steely gaze before letting out a sigh and closing his eyes. '_3…2…1'_ Naruto concluded as he awaited the inevitable crash of his back against the cold, uncompromising stone wall. It wasn't even a second later before Naruto finally collided with the massive wall, a gasp of pain escaping his lips as pain coursed through his veins. At that moment a familiar sensation took hold of Naruto, as he slowly felt the world around him seemingly melt away into the inky void of nothingness.

(Real World: Naruto's Apartment)

"Gah" Naruto yelled out in shock, his eyes wide open as he took a panicked series of breathes in order to soothe his nerves. His erratic breaths slowly but surely slowed down, as Naruto took in the sight of his bedroom. With one final deep intake of slightly stale air, Naruto finally calmed down and, with a relieved sigh, leaned back and fell onto his shitty mattress. '_This is going to take some getting used to.'_ Naruto thought with a hint of exhaustion, as he clutched his sword tightly in his hand before leaning it against his bed. Naruto opened his eyes after a few moments of peaceful silence, his eyes blankly rolling over every inch of his moldy, hole ridden ceiling.

With a small groan Naruto turned onto his side, making an effort to ignore the annoying squeaks that came from his mattress, in order to look at the electronic clock he had on his small bedside table. '_What the hell? It's only been about five minutes since I started!' _Naruto mentally gawked; astounded that so little time had passed since he ventured into the recesses of psyche.

'_Hm…interesting, this might warrant further testing in the future._' Ulquiorra's muttered aloud in Naruto's mind, which naturally caused him to freak out a bit.

"What the fuck is going on? Ulquiorra, why can I hear your voice in my head?" Naruto yelled in shock, as he briefly looked around the room for the pale Espada before shaking his head and taking several deep breaths.

'_I suggest you reframe from yelling out loud to yourself, lest someone overhear and believe you to be a lunatic.' _Ulquiorra replied dryly, almost making Naruto face palm himself for not realizing what he must look like right now.

'_Ok, can someone now tell me how I can hear your voices inside my head?'_ Naruto inquired mentally in a dull monotone, having once again shifted forms. Our, now pale, protagonist calmly rose up from his poor excuse for a bed, a blank stare adorning his expressionless face.

'_**That would be because of me you pitiful ape, I established a mental link between all of us.**_' Kyuubi growled out from its current napping area beside the Espada's compound, it voice laced with irritation and anger.

'_Why?'_ Naruto replied curiously, his brow raised in confusion at the bijou's supposed act of good will.

'**It's simple you blond imbecile, if you can communicate with your 'teachers' mentally, than I don't have to see your face every time you want to talk to them.**' Kyuubi bellowed in return, a small snarl escaping its lips towards the end of its small rant.

'_Despite Kyuubi-san's motives for creating our metal link, this is most beneficial to us in the long run._' Harribel commented coolly, her voice ringing in Naruto's ears as he contemplated her words.

'_I'll admit this is development unnerves me a bit, but this is too beneficial to be ignored out of some paranoia. Thank you Kyuubi.' _Naruto stated after a moment of mental deliberation, only getting a small "**Humph**" from the grouchy and indigent bijou in return.

'_Enough freaking talking already, its time to get to work, I want to do 100 push ups, 200 squats, and 100 sits ups to start off with.'_ Grimmjow blurted out angrily, effectively interrupting his fellow Espada.

'_As much as I loathe to agree with Grimmjow about anything, its best for the moment that you begin your training regiment to see the limits of your new body._' Harribel conceded in an annoyed and partial disgusted tone, as if the mere act of agreeing with him made her physically sick.

With a small frown on his face, Naruto begrudgingly dropped down onto the floor and began his on the spot workout regiment. '_This is going to be a long night._' Naruto muttered mentally as he repeatedly pushed himself off the floor, occasionally grumbling about 'Blue Haired Assholes' much to Grimmjow's anger, and the other's amusement.

(End Flashback: Konoha Academy: Iruka's Classroom)

'_These last few days have been seriously fucked up, haven't they?_' Naruto asked rhetorically in his mind, with an exhausted sigh escaping his lips. After a brief moment of silent relaxation, and situating himself better in his wooden seat, Naruto opened his eyes and was instantly greeted to the familiar, and dull, classroom once more. Naruto's descent into boredom was, thankfully, put on hold by the sound of multiple footsteps echoing off the smooth, wooden hallway floor. '_About damn time someone showed up._' Naruto thought with some relief as he turned his gaze towards the classroom door, waiting for inevitable arrival of the source of the mysterious footsteps.

Naruto did not have to wait very long, as in no time flat the previously echoing footsteps from the other end of the Academy were now outside the door. With a simple pull the door to the classroom was pulled aside, giving Naruto full view of the source of the footsteps.

Standing firmly outside in the hallway was a young boy about 12 or 13 years of age standing about 5'1", taller most of Naruto's classmates with the exception of Naruto himself. He wore dark, circular sunglasses that hid his eyes completely from view, which gleamed in the sunlight. He had tall, bushy brown hair that resembled somewhat of an afro, only held back by his blue clothed hitai-ate. He wore a long sleeved sea-green jacket with two large pockets in the front, with a high upturned collar that obscured part of his face from view. He also wore dark brown pants that end around a couple inches above his ankles, with a shuriken holster, as well as some bandages, wrapped around his right thigh. And lastly, he wore standard blue shinobi sandals on his feet. Standing before Naruto was none other than Aburame Shino.

"Do you remember me…Naruto?" Shino asked curiously, after a moment of starring at the white clad hybrid, with one brow raised in confusion. '_Strange, my Kikaichu say that Naruto's chakra tastes odd…like a giant mix of at least six different chakra signatures. This will require further observation.'_ Shino analyzed mentally, as he reviewed the data that his Kikaichu stealthily supplied him with regarding his, now, white clad classmate.

"…Shina, right?" Naruto replied after a moment of intense thought, as he scoured every inch of his memory for the identity of the bespectacled boy before him. The two gennin engaged in an intense stare down, though it was hard to tell with Shino's sunglasses obscuring his eyes. After what felt like hours of awkward silence Shino broke eye contact with the young hybrid as he dropped his gaze downwards, quickly turning his back to Naruto and walking towards the nearest corner.

'_Is he…sulking?_' Naruto thought with a large sweat drop forming on the back of his head, as he idly observed the depressed Aburame heir stare blankly at the wall in front of him. "You know, I'm actually impressed you managed to recognize me almost instantly. A good portion of the imbeciles of the village didn't recognize me at all." Naruto honestly praised, as he tried to coerce the sulking Aburame out of the secluded corner he had stationed himself in. '_It was worth a try._' Naruto thought after he received no immediate response from the sulking Aburame heir.

"It was simple to deduce your identity Naruto. How? You are the only person I know of in this village with blond hair and whisker marks. At first I thought you were an imposter, but a quick check of your massive chakra reserves, as well as your chakra signature, confirmed your identity to me." Shino replied in his usual monotone voice, as he slowly turned to face Naruto while walking to a nearby desk in the back.

"Heh, I suppose it's really not that hard to recognize me when you put it like that now." Naruto said humorously with a small laugh, slightly turning his head around to face Shino, who was currently sitting behind the white clad arrancar.

"Indeed." Shino replied simply with a small nod of his head, before the, slightly less, vacant classroom was once again overcome with silence. "I must ask Naruto, why do you look so radically different from when I last saw you over a week ago? I know you're not under some sort of Henge (Transformation). Why? Because that wouldn't explain why your chakra feels slightly different from the last time I had my Kikaichu sample it." Shino inquired with a hint of curiosity emerging from his normally dry monotone.

"Let's just say due to unforeseen circumstances that happened about a week ago, my body underwent a complete reconstruction and as a result I look like this as well as having a plethora of new tricks up my sleeve." Naruto summed up with a small scowl on his face, as he mentally reviewed the lies and revelations that been discovered over the course of the week. '_Calm down Naruto._' Naruto chanted to himself, as he felt the rage that had been building within him slowly fade away with each calming breath.

A fact that wasn't lost on Shino, who was observing the white clad arrancar with an analytical gaze, '_Strange…Naruto becomes extremely aggravated whenever the events of last week is mentioned. What could have happened?'_ Shino thought to himself, adjusting his sunglasses unconsciously, in confusion. "So you awakened some form of Kekkei Genkai last week?" Shino inquired, trying to uncover as much information as he possibly could from his, now, radically different classmate.

"Call it what you want, the fact of the matter is that I've changed for the better." Naruto replied with a small scowl on his face, his eyes closed tightly together before he opened them once more. '_I really need to come up with a concise cover story about what happened.'_ Naruto thought with some irritation, his mind already trying to form a logical cover story regarding his newfound appearance.

'_Why not say your transformation was thanks to one of these 'Kekkei Genkai'?'_ Ulquiorra suggested from the recesses of Naruto's mind, his cold monotone ringing in Naruto's ears.

'_I could work, it just seems…lazy to me though. But until I can come up with a better story, it will have to do.'_ Naruto replied begrudgingly to the pale Espada, seemingly angry at himself for being unable to think of a better explanation at that moment.

"Greetings, Hinata." Shino stated aloud with a little warmth filling his normally dry tone, causing Naruto to snap out his funk and look towards the door and, by proxy, the new arrival. Standing at the door was a young pale skinned girl about 12 to 13 standing at 4'10" in height. She had dark purple hair styled in a hime-cut that ended just above her forehead, with two stands of her hair ended a little below her chin. She wore a bulky long-sleeved fur lined cream jacket with a light red fire emblem on the upper left and right sleeves. She wore the standard navy blue pants that ended just above her ankle and a pair of regular blue shinobi sandals. Two things in particular stood out to Naruto, one more so than the other, with the first being the blue clothed hitai-ate around her neck. The other thing that stood out about her in Naruto's eyes, were her large white, with a tinge of lavender, eyes that lacked any form of pupil in them, which he instantly identified as being a Byakugan (All Seeing Eye). This young woman was none other than Hyuuga Hinata, heiress of the Hyuuga Clan and the class wallflower.

'_N-N-Naruto-K-Kun? So d-different…So sex-x-y. _' Hinata mentally stammered out, an atomic blush lighting up her face like a tomato and her heart beating a hundred miles and hour, as she gawked in amazement at her crush's new appearance. For a brief moment Hinata's mind shut down from the sight of Naruto's new body, multiple thoughts overloading her brain, both clean and some VERY dirty, as she unconsciously leaked a small trickle of blood from her nose. Moments later her mind finally rebooted, her eyes finally coming into focus as she blinked a few times to get her bearings. '_Naruto-Kun g-graduated, thank Kami-s-sama!'_ Hinata thought with immense relief and happiness, her heart swelling with joy, at seeing the hitai-ate around her beloved's forehead.

"Hinata!" Shino said loudly, for him anyway, effectively breaking Hinata out of her love/lust induced trance. '_Hinata needs to confess her affections to Naruto soon, the longer she waits the less likely she'll get the outcome she desires.' _Shino thought with a sigh as he idly watched his blue haired classmate climb the stairs towards the back of the class after releasing a loud "EEP!" in surprise.

'_Odd girl, though I can't claim to be the poster child for normalcy.' _Naruto thought to himself with some amusement,before he felt his emotions be quickly swept away by an unstoppable wave of melancholy and indifference. To the shock of those around him, Naruto began to change right before their eyes. With each passing second his skin and his hair slowly became paler and paler, his normally spiky hair loosing its luster until it finally hung down around his face. If the other residents of the room were able to see his face, they would be shocked to see Naruto's once vibrant blue eyes had changed into two icy glaciers that pierced the soul with a single glance.

The sound of the door opening instantly grabbed the attention of the room's occupants, causing them to look at the door to see the identity of the person, or people in this case, joining them.

The first person standing in the archway of the door was a young pale skinned boy about 13 years standing at about 4'11" with spiky black hair tied into a pony tail, making it look like a pineapple. He had narrow brown eyes and oddly enough small, silver hoop earrings in each ear; his face however was in a picture perfect example of pure laziness. His clothes reflected his overall lazy demeanor, by being relatively plain in nature in comparison to everyone else. He wore a green lined mesh t-shirt underneath a short sleeved, green lined grey jacket with a blue negative symbol on each shoulder with a blue hitai-ate tied around his left arm. On his legs he wore a pair of regular brown pants with a shuriken pouch tied to his right leg with a couple of bandages. And finally on his feet were a pair of blue shinobi sandals. With a tired sigh Nara Shikamaru, class slacker and heir to the Nara Clan, walked into the classroom, giving the others a good look at the compatriot.

Shikamaru's companion was a fair skinned…portly 12 year boy standing at about 5'0", making him one of the taller members of Naruto's graduating class. He had short spiky brown hair that was covered partially by his hitai-ate, which looked like an upside down diaper, allowing for two tufts of hair to be visible on either side of his head. Also like his compatriot, he wore a small silver hoop earrings in each ear. He wore a white shirt with the kanji for "food" on it, though most of the shirt was hidden by the green haori and the long white scarf he wore over it. He wore black shorts over his legs and wrapped bandages around his calves, as well as forearms, which ended just above his standard blue shinobi sandals. Happily munching on his barbeque potato chips Akamichi Choji, clan heir to the Akamichi Clan and chip enthusiast, entered the classroom along his best friend Shikamaru.

'_Hm, who's that guy? Wait a minute…no way, it couldn't be. Blond hair, blue eyes, whisker marks…Naruto!' _Shikamaru exclaimed mentally in astonishment, blinking repeatedly to make sure his eyes were playing tricks on him. "Naruto?" Shikamaru asked hesitantly as he eyed the white clad arrancar with suspicion in his eyes, his mind working overtime trying to find a rational answer to this complicated conundrum.

'_No way…'_ Choji thought in astonishment, the shock of Naruto's new look causing him to almost drop his bag of chips. Almost mind you, as no self respecting Akamichi would dare drop their bag of chips, let alone any food, on the floor.

"Yes?" Naruto replied in an eerie monotone, one that sent shivers up Shikamaru and Choji's spines, as he eyed the two would-be shinobi with a cold, critical gaze. An awkward silence swept over the classroom as the resident lazy genius and white clad arrancar engaged in a brief stare down, which thankfully didn't last too long.

"…Ugh, you know what? I'm not even going to bother asking what happened to you, it's too troublesome to think about. But I do have to ask, what are you doing here Naruto? This is for people who graduated." Shikamaru groaned out with a sigh as he massaged the bridge of his nose, trying to alleviate the headache that was currently brewing in his head. '_Why can't life be simple and boring? Why does everything Naruto do have to be so damn troublesome?_' Shikamaru complained mentally, silently cursing what ever forces conspired to make this day turn from average to just plain annoying.

"I did graduate; Iruka-sensei gave me a make up exam. Or was the headband tied around my forehead not enough proof for you?" Naruto replied coldly, mentally patting himself on the back for his impromptu excuse, as he closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair.

'_Nice excuse Naruto-kun.' _Nelliel said happily, her natural joy and exuberance seemed to resonate with every word that came from her mouth.

'_Thank you Nelliel-san.'_ Naruto replied calmly, his monotone much warmer than normal, as a small smile made its way onto his face. Naruto took a long, deep breath through his nose as the silence of the classroom, only offset by the constant sounds of Choji eating chips and the crackling of said chips bags as Choji dug through them. With a calm sigh, Naruto slowly exhaled the breath he took as a strange calmness swept over Naruto. Time seemed fly by to Naruto, who at some point had fallen victim to the sandman's touch and dozed off, who unfortunately was awakened by a chorus of loud cries of joy made by howler monkeys.

"Gah!" Naruto blurted out in shock, his hand instantly clutching his sword's handle, as he awoke with a start. His eyes, which had a murderous glint to them, scoured every inch of the confined classroom for the source of the disruption. After a moment of scouring the classroom, Naruto finally homed in on the source of the commotion that awakened him from his peaceful slumber.

The source was a young, pale 13 year old boy with deep onyx hair, with two strands of hair that roughly reached his chin, which that was shaped, hilariously, like a duck's ass. He had dark black eyes that gleamed with his own arrogance, which along with the superior smirk on his face didn't give him much of a humble appearance. He wore a short sleeved blue shirt with a high collar that covered a good portion of his neck and a bit of his chin. On his arms he wore long white arms warmers, which stretched from his mid-bicep all the way to his wrists, with a blue belt at the wrist end holding it on. On his legs he wore a pair of simple white shorts with a black kunai holster tied to his right thigh and held down with bandages. He also wore blue shin guards (4) with bandages wrapped around them, and, to top it all off, he wore standard blue shinobi sandals. Unseen to Naruto at that moment, on the young boys back was a large white and red fan symbol, thus marking him as a member of, the now almost extinct, Uchiha Clan. To Naruto's displeasure, standing in the archway of the door was none other than Uchiha Sasuke, resident 'genius' and class asshole.

'_Great, just great…' _Naruto thought irritably, his ears ringing painfully from the sheer pitch of Sasuke's fan girl's annoying screeching. Scrunching his eyes closed, Naruto pressed his fingers to massage his temples in a vein attempt to soothe the stinging pain in his head. '_Finally!_' Naruto thought as he released a sigh of relief, the pain in his forehead finally subsiding into nothingness. Naruto's eyes snapped open when he felt a presence appear next to him, his eyes shifting subtly to see who was sitting next to him.

'_Dammit.'_ Naruto mentally grunted out, as much to his immediate displeasure it turned out that the person who had taken the seat next to him was Sasuke of all people.

Said Uchiha at that moment was preoccupied with looking out the window with an intense gaze, his elbows rested on the desk before him with his fingers interlocked in front of his chest. After a few moments of starring out the window, dreaming of the numerous ways to Itachi suffer in utter agony, Sasuke finally tore his blank gaze from the tree outside to that of the 'Dobe' sitting right next to him. '_Tch, does that loser really think that a new look will make him stronger than me?_' Sasuke arrogantly thought with a mental sneer, his ego dismissing Naruto quicker than one of his fan girl's advances.

Without warning, a powerful rumbling sound swept over the classroom as the loose items, and some students, began to shake all over the place. The entire classroom shook with thunderous force; the papers and pencils on Iruka's desk flew off and clattered to the floor, where they continued to bounce around. Numerous students yelled out in shock as a few of them struggled to stay seated in their chairs, finding extremely difficult to stay on them when they are bouncing up and down like a pogo stick.

"What the hell is going on?"

"Is it an earthquake?"

"Oh Kami, we're under attack I know it!"

"Look, something's coming right towards us!" one of the students near the window cried out in terror, causing everyone to clamber near the windows and look outside. To many students shock and confusion, rocketing toward the academy appeared to be two figures side by side with enormous dust clouds trailing behind them as the ventured closer and closer to the outdated learning institution. Within seconds the two figures breached the main door the school, the shaking inside the classroom increasing twofold.

A loud crash came from outside in the hallway, muffled voices yelling in the distance at each other, barely comprehensible even to those with advanced senses. As the rumbling got closer and closer, the vibrations in the class got worse, which sounded like a herd of stampeding rhinos charging in the hallway. Said rhinos then threw the door open, both trying to force the other out of the way whilst spouting obscenities at each other, poor ones I might add.

"HA, I win Ino-Pig!" the first 'rhino' screeched out, revealing it to be a slightly pale 12 year old girl standing at about 4'8" with, weirdly enough, bright pink hair that stretched down to about her waist. She had rather striking large green eyes that shined like emeralds in the light. She wore a bright red, short sleeved qipao dress with a zipper going down the middle with multiple white rings on her arms and back. She also wore a pair of dark green shorts which ended roughly mid thigh with a kunai holster tied to her left thigh. And just like every other person in they're graduating class; she wore the standard blue shinobi sandals. The thing that, unfortunately, made her stand out was her abnormally large forehead, which was on display thanks to her using her blue clothed hitai-ate as a hair band. This howler monkey was none other than Haruno Sakura, resident bookworm, Sasuke fan girl, and Naruto's FORMER crush.

"No way Billboard-Brow, you totally cheated!" The other 'rhino' shrieked, turning out to be a young, fair skinned 12 year old girl with platinum blonde hair done up in a long pony tail that ended near the small of her back and with large bangs covering the right side of her face. She had large blue eyes which gave her an innocent look to her, or at least it would if she didn't have a nasty scowl on her face at that moment. Like Shikamaru and Choji, she was currently wearing a pair of small silver hoop earrings, barely noticeable to those who weren't looking for it. She happened to be wearing a fairly revealing outfit in comparison to her 'rival'. She wore a short, sleeveless purple vest like blouse with a large collar that rested on top of her shoulders. Similar to Sasuke, she wore a pair of long white arm warmers though unlike him, the straps holding the band on her were purple. Over her legs she wore a purple, apron like skirt that was cut off at the sides, exposing her bandage clad stomach and thighs. Her blue clothed hitai-ate was wrapped around her waist like a belt and last but not least she wore blue shinobi sandals, surprise-surprise. This was Yamanaka Ino, local gossip queen and Sakura's rival for Sasuke's 'love'.

"Did not Piggy!" Sakura yelled angrily as she got up close and personal in Ino's face with a furious glare.

"Did so Forehead!" Ino yelled in retaliation as she shoved her head towards Sakura's; their foreheads clashing against each other as sparks flew throw their eyes and clashed back and forth. A low growl rumbled in each of their throats, their fists were clenched tightly and were waiting for the opportunity to show the other 'their place'.

"For the love of Kami, will you two shut up? You're hurting Akamaru's ears with your damn screeching." A loud voice said angrily from the next row over, causing Naruto and most of the class to turn their attention to the source of said voice. He was a young, tan boy around 12 years old with; hidden at the moment, short spiky brown hair that was held up by his blue clothed hitai-ate. He had sharp, narrow black eyes which had thin vertical slits as opposed to normal round pupils. He had pronounced canine teeth that protruded from his upper lip, clearly visible when even his mouth was closed. He wore a long sleeved, dark grey hooded coat with black fur surrounding the hood and cuff links of the jacket. He also wore a pair of dark grayish pants that went to his mid calf and on his feet we're blue shinobi sandals. As if his feral appearance didn't make him stand out enough, he had two very distinct things that set him apart from everyone else. The first being the pair of large, red fang tattoos adorning his cheeks, signifying him as one of the Inuzuka Clan. The other being the small white and brown puppy, that was currently whimpering on the desk with its front paws over its long floppy ears. These two were none other than Inuzuka Kiba, local hot head and second heir to the Inuzuka Clan, and his ninken partner Akamaru.

"What did you say Dog-Breath?" Ino and Sakura yelled out in unison, their feud temporarily forgotten as they rounded on their feral classmate with their feminine rage. After mercilessly beating on Kiba, and scratching Akamaru's belly to say they're sorry, Ino and Sakura shook each others hand for a job well done, a pleased grin on both their faces.

'_Sucker._' Sakura thought with an mental evil grin, as she pulled Ino close in and then, with a mighty push, sent her flying backwards as she herself ran to claim the seat next to her 'true love'.

'_**Cha, who did that piggy think she is, trying to sit next to our Sasuke-Kun**_.' Inner Sakura furiously ranted from her place in Sakura's subconscious, with the real Sakura agreeing with her completely.

'_What the…?' _Sakura thought in confusion, as she skid to a complete halt in front of the desk that her 'Sasuke-Kun' was sittingat. Sitting the seat that should have been 'rightfully hers' next to Sasuke was currently being occupied by some blond, admitting handsome, jackass. "I don't know who you are, but you're sitting in my seat next to Sasuke-Kun. SO MOVE!" Sakura yelled at the white clad boy, who had yet to respond to her 'reasonable' demand.

"FOREHEAD!" Ino yelled in anger as she stomped her way over to where Sakura was standing, her fists clenching to the point her soft, moisturized knuckles were turning white. "How dare you do that…to…me?" Ino ranted at the first but slowly drawled out when she took notice of the "gorgeous blond hunk" sitting next to Sasuke. '_Holy crap, he's so hot! Look at those abs… that face…go Kami, I think_ _need to consider switching over to this guy's team.' _Ino thought dreamily as she blatantly ogled Naruto's abs with a line of drool hanging from her gaping, dopy smile.

"Ino…Ino…Ino…PIGGY WAKE UP!" Sakura yelled as she repeatedly snapped her fingers in front of Ino's face in a desperate attempt to snap her out of her trance.

"Heh…and you're supposed to be the smart one of the class, simply pitiful." Naruto muttered with a small humorless laugh, as he closed his eyes and shook his head in both disbelief and disappointment.

"What did you say?" Sakura shrieked in a furious rage, her trembling fist clenched 'threateningly' in front of her, ready to the strike down the fool that opposed her at a moments notice. '_Who the hell does this guy think he is?' _Sakura thought indigently as her rage grew with every passing second, her fists clenching tighter and tighter, just itching to strike down this 'blond asshole'.

"I called you pitiful Sakura, because that's what you are. You claim to be the smartest person in the class, and yet you couldn't recognize me when everyone else before you did in less than a minute. So I repeat. You. Are. Pitiful!" Naruto replied harshly his piercing glare locked firmly onto Sakura, who felt like unnerved underneath his unwavering gaze.

'_Recognize him_?_ How the hell am I supposed to recognize someone I've never met? Stupid blond Baka…wait a minute… n-no… it couldn't be him, there is now way in hell this guy is Naruto-Baka…could it? Naruto-Baka is my loyal little dog, he would never talk to me like this, not in a million years. But…the blond hair, the whisker marks, the horrible fashion sense, it has to be him. THAT BASTARD!' _Sakura mentally pondered, her face scrunched up in thought, as she shifted from her initial denial to pure, unbridled fury.

"NARUTO-BAKA!" Sakura yelled in absolute rage, a large vein appearing on her massive forehead as she threw her fists back, ready to pound some sense back into Naruto and then pound Naruto into the floor. With a cry of exertion Sakura threw her fist forwards; her fist tearing threw the air like a bullet towards the top of Naruto's head. However, instead of the satisfying feeling of a person's skull crunching under her fists, Sakura's fist felt like it hit an unyielding steel wall. "Gah" Sakura cried out in anguish as an ungodly amount of pressure wrapped around her hand in a vice like grip.

"Sakura!" Ino yelled in a panic, her rival's cry of pain snapping her out of her lust induced trance. "Let go of her NOW." Ino demanded furiously as she, in a moment of brilliance for her, took out one of her kunai and immediately tried to stab Naruto. Sadly her plan was not meant to succeed as, with one hand still grasping Sakura, Naruto lashed out with his other hand and grabbed Ino's kunai with his bare hand. Ignoring Ino's stupefied expression; Naruto twisted the small knife from her hand and then proceeded to imbed it in the floor below with a well placed throw.

"My name is Naruto. Not Naruto-Baka or Dobe, or Loser. Just Naruto, and let me make one thing extremely clear Haruno. I am not your, or anyone else's, punching anymore, the doormat that let you do that is dead and buried. If you try to attack me again, I won't just defend myself, I will fucking DESTROY you. Do I make myself clear?" Naruto growled out angrily, completely ignoring Ino's yelling and attempts to attack him, as he applied more force onto Sakura entrapped fist, causing her to cry out in agony as she fell to one knee, trying desperately to try and free her hand from Naruto's crushing grip. '_Dammit.'_ Naruto thought with pity at seeing tears flow down Sakura's face, with an agitated sigh he released Sakura's hand.

Immediately Sakura clutched her almost broken hand to her chest, sobs threatening to escape from her throat as small tears poured from her eyes. She managed to send a small glare Naruto's way, her hate at that moment filling her eyes with a fiery glint. With from assistance from Ino, Sakura managed to walk over a desk three rows away from Naruto and sit down, still clutching her aching hand.

'_Was that really necessary Naruto-san?' _Harribel asked with an irritated edge to her voice, one that made Naruto practically see the glare she was giving him.

'_Damn right it was necessary; you've got to show that weak bitch who's in charge Gaki_._' _Grimmjow stated with a large grin on his face as he punched his palm as if to emphasize his point.

'_While I'll admit I might have gone a little too far, I'm not apologizing for defending myself. Besides, like Grimmjow said, this way everyone will know that I'm not to be fucked with anymore.' _Naruto replied, his tone firm and unapologetic, as he crossed his arms stubbornly in front of him, ignoring the glares and murmurs of his classmates around him.

'_We are going to finish this conversation later Naruto-san, one way or another.' _Harribel warned with an angry tone in her voice, clearly unhappy with his answer, one that made Naruto feel a good amount of fear when it came to the buxom blonde Espada.

Thankfully the sound of the door opening tore Naruto away from imagining the horrible things that Harribel would do to him later.

"Good morning class and congratulations on graduating from this academy. From now on you will all be official shinobi in service not only to Hokage-sama but to Hi no Kuni in general. You will face numerous dangers and enemies as you carry out your missions with your comrades to the best of your abilities. It has been my honor to be your sensei for these last few years." Iruka said happily as he entered the classroom, now sporting a few bandages on his face, with a proud but serious expression on his face as he addressed his now former students.

"Now before I announced the teams that you will be assigned to for the rest of your gennin careers, I must address a new policy made by Hokage-sama last night. He has issued an exchange program system between gennin teams in order to help maximize your training progression and skills. What this means is, with a written request signed by your new squad leader, you can be swapped out with another student in order to be trained by their sensei for particular training you might need. Without any further distractions, let's begin the team selection process. Team 1 will be…" Iruka announced with a smile on his face as he started to list off the teams, though Naruto tuned him out for a minute as his mind tried to analyze the ulterior motive behind the 'exchange program'.

'_What are you playing at Sarutobi? What's your angle here? How long have you been planning this and why now?' _Naruto pondered with a frown on his face, trying to find the hidden agenda behind this seemingly good idea of Sarutobi's. '_This is giving a headache…screw it, I'll just figure out later or something.' _Naruto thought in annoyance, mentally filing away his thoughts for later as he focused back onto what Iruka was saying.

"Next up, Team 7 will comprise of…"

**What's up people of the internet? Legion here, I hope you enjoyed part 1 of this 2 part chapter. Originally this chapter was to include both parts but seeing as how long you guys have been patiently waiting for this chapter and the sheer length of this chapter, I felt like breaking it up into 2 parts. I wanted to get this chapter out a few days ago but between my new part time job and a little game called Borderlands 2, I've been very busy lately. I feel this isn't my best work, particularly during the second half of this chapter in the classroom, but I tried my best and that's all I can do. **

**If you felt like I could improve on something, please offer CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Flames will not be tolerated and properly ignored. Now to clear up some things that need to be cleared up in this chapter.**

**(1) Nagi is an OC of mine, mainly to be used for comic relief and occasionally a confidant for Naruto. He's not going to show up much in this story, at least not as of this moment, but when he does I plan to make the most of it. **

**(2) This will permanently replace Kyuubi's cage for the rest of this story, not a big deal but I felt I should tell you guys.**

**(3) To those you don't know there's an old wife's tale that states: When you feel a cold shiver up your spine, someone is walking over your grave. **

**(4) I really don't know what those things on Sasuke's legs were supposed to be so I just made them shin guards, if they weren't already.**

**One thing I need to address here is Naruto's personality and how bad he reacted to Sakura's attempted assault. That wasn't meant to be just Sakura Bashing, for the most part, but as an example of how damaged he is. After years of physical and mental abuse, numerous lies and betrayals and overall being sick and tired of dealing with people's shit, its not hard to imagine someone flying off the deep end once or twice. And that is something I plan to fully explore in this story, the depths of Naruto's psychological damage and how it manifests itself as I believe it makes him more of a human character.**

**I would like to thank some of the people who helped me get this story off of the ground. Skelo, who acted as my unofficial beta reader and frequent idea man, thanks for helping me with dialogue and the idea for the shinobi exchange program, I owe you man BIG TIME. Dregus, for helping me create a dynamic between Naruto and each one of the Espada residing within him. I would also like to thank ****Xager-the-Chaos-King****, ****sblack13****, ****XxXxSnowxXxX**** for offering their assistance, even though I didn't utilize their help this time. My next update is going to be a little…different compared to the rest of my work, one that should make my more perverted readers very happy. Until next time people, now if you'll excuse me I have to get ready for work.**

**Have a great Fourth of July, Legion…out. **


	5. Poll Results

**Author's note #3: **

** Greetings people of the internet, Legion19 here with results from my latest poll regarding the status and members of Naruto's gennin squad. After tallying up the votes from the poll itself, private messages and reviews, which will not be counted next time, the results are finally in. *Drum roll* And the winner is…A New Team with Shino and Kiba under the "guidance" of Kakashi. Sorry to those who wanted to see Naruto with the original Team 7, but fear not as they will not be ignored in this story. **

** On another note, I am currently seeking a reliable beta for my stories, both of which I am hard at work on. Many people have noted that my current story has numerous grammatical errors, most of which have now been corrected, and I wish to prevent that from happening in the future. So please send in you're requests or recommendations to help me improve my story and prevent it from becoming a "cliché ridden piece of crap" as some of you have more or less phrased it. **

**Ta-Ta for now **

** Legion19 Out.**


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